Wounds
by J.A. Carlton
Summary: The Winchester brothers find themselves caught in a tug of war between light and dark forces that may well cost the life of one of their allies and leave a trail of emotional devastation behind. same story different summary
1. Chapter 1

Wounds – sn fic

by: sifi

Disclaimer: Of course

Love; hangs head

Despair: Check.

--

Laura Finnegan rolled over slowly and peered into the darkness of her room. There was no coherent or structured thought in her head, only a rolling hollowness that alternately made her want to cry or just run until she dropped and could not get up.

For the tenth time in twice as many minutes she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. The world shifted and she clutched the mattress but this time she didn't lay back down.

_Go… get out now…_ the voice of desperation urged quietly, as if it was afraid it would waken someone or…. something.

She looked out the window noting the velvet darkness of the sky against the yellow of the streetlights, _Yes… before its too late… or too early… go now!_ came the whisper again.

She folded a tissue, tore off a piece of tape, cut the flow to the I.V. in her arm, removed the catheter from her vein and taped the tissue down.

Only slightly unsteady, she grabbed her overnight bag from the closet and quickly dressed, relieved beyond measure that the final surgery was done and she could get back to the only life she knew anymore.

Tears burned in the corners of her eyes as she looked at the mental photograph of Dean, the look that had been on his face before she'd been called to destroy the gargoyles. She had lots of images of him stored in her minds' eye but this one, this one was one of her favorites. She had no idea what he'd been thinking at that moment, but that soft smile, the one that said 'wow I just got a present in my head' warmed her all the way through.

_I miss him…_she thought and felt the heat of the tears film over her eyes. He'd been so good to her, calling every couple days to make sure she was alright, to see if she needed anything, offering to be here for this last surgery… she'd smiled and told him, "…that's not necessary sweetie… it's no big deal… I'll call you when they discharge me…" but she had no intention of calling him, and none either of seeing him any time soon.

She checked the room for personal effects once more before feeling her eyes finally overflow as she crept stealthily out of the room, out of Cook County Hospital, and back into the world.

--

Dean shut his phone and frowned.

"What?" Sam asked glancing over the laptop.

"She's not answering,"

"It's probably just off… it is a hospital you know… just call the main switchboard and have 'em transfer you…" Sam suggested.

Dean nodded and dialed. He listened a moment, pressed a button and finally got a person, "Yeah can you transfer me to Laura Finnegan's room please…" then he was holding again.

"She was probably just beat man… four surgeries in two months Dean… it's gotta take a toll y'know?" Sam offered. He knew Dean had wanted to be there for her, especially for this last one that would finally set everything to rights back in her body but she'd somehow managed to persuade him it wasn't a big deal. Sam couldn't help but wonder if she'd 'influenced' him but he didn't think so. That didn't seem her style.

"…I don't understand… how is that possible?" Dean asked, agitation evident in his tone and garnering Sam's curious gaze, "No… I'm family…" he snapped and listened a moment before his face twisted, "What the hell kind of place are you people running there?... At least tell me if she had the surgery…uh huh… no… nevermind… thanks…" and he snapped the phone shut before meeting Sam's eyes with a confounded expression on his face.

"She's gone… the a.m. shift nurse went on her rounds and Laura was gone… sometime in the night…" he shook his head, "…You think she could've taken off that quickly? I mean I'm the first one to get my butt out of any hospital but… that's… fast…"

Sam nodded and shrugged, "She probably just dragged herself to a motel or something so she could get some real rest… you know how it is in hospitals, you're lucky if you can get a couple hours sleep before someone's bugging you about something…"

Dean shrugged, "Yeah… that's true… and we're not talking about your average girl either here…"

"You mean YOUR average girl…" Sam smirked and received a pillow in his face for the trouble, "Just leave her a message… she'll call…she can't ignore family right?" he grinned and received Dean's last pillow.

"Shaddahp…" he grinned and dialed her cell, "Hey Laura, it's me… just wondering how you're doing… give me a call when you can…" he didn't notice Sam watching as he opened his mouth to say something more then snapped it shut again and swallowed, "… kay… bye,"

"So… where are we heading?" he asked stretching out on the bed, waiting for the rundown of possible cases.

"Well, we've got a guy who drilled a hole in his head to let the demons out…." Sam started.

"Yeah like that's gonna work…" Dean scoffed looking at Sam expectantly.

"Then there's the guy who claims he gets torn up regularly by the ghost of a witch who was killed on his property back in the 17th century…"

Dean shook his head, "Leave it for Ghost Hunters… what's behind door number three?"

"A woman in Southern Illinois went missing for three days, when she returned she had no recollection of those three days…"

"So what we're doing alien abductions now?..." Dean challenged.

Sam cocked his head to the side and smiled, making his big brother wait for it.

"Sam?" he asked, intrigued by the silence.

"When she turned up her body had aged thirty years…" he smiled.

"Oooh… so you wanna quest the map…" Dean sat up as Sam held up the two pieces of paper, "That's my little college boy…" he grinned and rolled languidly off the bed as Sam wafted one of the pillows at his head.

--

Adrienne Stevens stood at her dresser brushing her long, now gray hair. She knew she was twenty three but she was amazed by how much she looked like her mother with her new crows feet and smile lines. _If I could remember what happened… if I could remember anything God I look like I'm fifty five… how can a person just lose thirty years of their life? This can't be happening, this can't be real… this kind of thing just does NOT happen in real life…_but the silvery strands of tears flowing down the new crevasses in her cheeks told a different story. Somehow, her best years had been stolen from her.

_How am I going to explain this? How am I going to…when Freddie comes home how… will he even want me anymore? I'm an old lady… he's not even thirty himself…I could dye my hair… it is kinda pretty though… but I'm not ready to be a white haired old lady! but these lines… these… Oh God please someone tell me this is just a dream…_ She wiped at the tears and wondered if it was worth it. Freddie, her husband of only two years had married a vivacious young woman, now when he got home from overseas he'd have a wrinkly old lady? He'd recover quickly enough if she just… took herself out of the picture. She was sure of it.

--

In the city of Chicago, anything located South of Roosevelt Rd. is considered the South Side. It's one of those areas where a person waits inside for a cab, then dashes out when it arrives, especially at night. During daylight hours the rule is the same but a little more relaxed. The deep of the night on the South Side belongs to something sinister that draws on the worst in human nature and washes it to the surface. Cook County Hospital is located, technically, on the South Side.

In her street clothes no one recognized her or realized she'd been, only a few minutes ago, a patient. She left through the ER where she was just another sad sack in need of something and banking on the county to pay for it. Stepping out into the night she breathed in the bus fumes, listened to the sound of the 'L' grinding on its tracks in a quiet moment and wondered where she should go. The staples in her belly gave a twitch beneath the gauze dressing and she decided to turn left, or to head West. There weren't many pedestrians out at this time of night, most of them were standing on the platform waiting for the train or dashing to somewhere. Wrapped gently in the darkness Laura ran her hand along the building for stability and strolled down the street, her mind comfortably quiet as she navigated her surroundings. _I can pick up the car another time. _She thought absently and continued to walk wondering where she'd wind up, but not really caring either. In just a few hours the world would wake from its sleep and this side of town would bear a mask of normalcy. In just a few hours the a.m. duty nurse would make her rounds and notice her patient was missing. She'd open the chart, note that the patient had disappeared in the night and submit it to the administrator who would initial the report then have the chart filed in Medical Records. And, in just a few hours, as Dean Winchester was leaving a message in her voice mail box, Laura Finnegan would begin to run.

--

tbc?

very short beginning chapter…almost like a prologue… Thanks Beloved.

sifi


	2. Chapter 2

Wounds – chpt 2

by: sifi

--

"Why is always the woods man? Wendigo's, Ga'lo's… Big Foots… or is it feet?" Dean groused hopping over a fallen stump while his arms flailed at the wasp sized mosquitos buzzing around him.

Sam shrugged and raised his face to the sun, "…the report said the hunter found her about two miles in, due West…You should've used the bug spray…" he grinned, "Or a little less aftershave…"

"Oooh someone had their Bitch-e-o's this morning eh Francis?" Dean smacked his shoulder lightly and got a grin and a bird in return.

Both of them knew Dean would be fairly eaten alive by the time they got back to the motel, it never mattered if he used the bug spray or not, mosquitos loved him.

"Didn't the report also say she was soaking wet but I didn't see any rivers or lakes marked on the map… did you?" he asked.

Sam shook his head, "Nah but places like this are always crisscrossed with streams and stuff…"

"Tell me why we're here rather than in town, talking to the woman or the hunter who found her or… anyone other than being out here…"

"Well seeing as how most of our… more interesting cases tend to get uppity at night…" Sam started.

"Yeah alright genius, you got a point… hey if this turns out to be some ghost of a psycho freak…" Dean started and wondered how long it was going to take before he stopped thinking of their narrow escape from Eddy Jay every time he and Sam were cruising through a wooded area.

Sam patted his messenger bag. The laptop had been left at the motel room and the bag loaded with salt, lighter fluid, matches, holy water and a few other odds and ends that were most likely to be of help, and they were each packing sawed off's with rock salt shells as well as pistols loaded with consecrated rounds. "We're set don't worry… even Geek Boy can learn a thing or two… besides I just got the cast off two weeks ago… I could go with never having another one."

Dean nodded smiling. He'd been alternately grateful and occasionally embarrassed by his younger brothers' gentle nature, particularly in the first few days after they'd finally destroyed the demon they created. Dean hadn't realized just how heavy the weight was that he'd been carrying and though Sam, true to his word never asked for details, never bothered him to 'share' his feelings, he'd done the best thing he could have and called the one friend Dean had that he knew he could tell anything to and it would be completely safe with her. Then Sam had disappeared on him and opened up a whole new kettle of fish. One that almost got his confidante killed even as she saved his life or his sanity, he still wasn't sure which.

"Yeah, let's avoid that if we can… though your handwriting with your left hand is still better than mine with my right…" Dean complimented, sort of, and shook his head, "So, how many times have incidents like this been recorded here?" he asked, "Four in the last two hundred years? What do you think we're dealing with… some kind of… succubus, Wood Sprite? or Woods Spirit that feeds on people like a vampire… heh… vampires… still cracks me up…" he chuckled scratching his head. He still had trouble sometimes believing, despite everything they knew to be true about the supernatural realms, about the evils that walked the earth, that there were such things as vampires. It just didn't feel right.

"Succubus…" Sam snorted shaking his head, "…dude get your mind out of the gutter for once?"

"What?" Dean grinned and cocked his head to the side.

"Probably some kind of a Sprite or Dryad or something…they tend to stay very close to their trees…"

"Yeah but how could it leech the years out of a person… that much I don't get y'know?" Dean shook his head.

"I don't know… if it is some kind of nature spirit it's possible this Stevens woman caused some harm to its territory… somehow… and it retaliated by stealing her life force… I mean she's what? twenty three… maybe it's some kind of hormonal thing…"

"What like supernatural PMS or something? Dude… that's not cool," Dean muttered as his brows furrowed while contemplating the concept.

Sam just shrugged. There were times when Dean could truly astound him, his insights into either situations or people were more often than not, dead on target. He was rarely judgmental and relied on his own compass to guide him whether it was in the geographic sense or in the moral sense. He never seemed to have the doubts that so frequently plagued Sam, those shades of gray that made life choices so painful sometimes. He was also far more introspective than most people gave him credit for, and Sam wondered how he managed to keep his mask so well balanced that so few ever realized he was wearing one at all.

_My brother the enigma… _he thought about that time up in Washington when they'd been… over shadowed by those sisters who couldn't rest until they got laid, and he shook his head feeing his cheeks flush with embarrassment. To himself, he nodded, yeah the situation had embarrassed him. It didn't matter that they let them pick up girls, that wasn't the point. _And Dean… the one person on Earth I would've thought would be mortified, horrified even by the very idea… was intrigued… he as much as admitted he kind of enjoyed it…freak… maybe because it gives him more insight into what a girl likes so when he gets back on the prowl… hey… huh_ he stopped in his tracks and furrowed his brow, _When was the last time he picked up a girl? Laura notwithstanding… wow… _he smirked to himself.

Lost in his musings Sam almost lost his footing when Dean grabbed the back of his jacket and yanked him off to the right, toward the sound of running water, "We're about two miles in yeah?" he asked.

"About that," Sam nodded as Dean walked to the edge of a small, clear running stream that was about two feet across and clear as glass.

"Hey… fish!" Dean pointed at the dozen or so visible silvery bodies shimmying through the water. He grinned openly until he saw Sam's look of puzzlement then forced himself to un-smile.

"I worry about you sometimes…" Sam ribbed gently as they headed upstream, the sun in their faces with living green-gold raining into them.

_I didn't think I'd ever feel this again…_ Dean marveled. He remembered waking in the hospital room in Oklahoma after burning Eddy Jay's corpse and wondering if he'd ever feel this color of light inside himself again. _Man that was dark time…it hurt so much… I don't know if I could stand that kind of pain again… that son of a bitch hurting Sam… he's Mine, My brother, My responsibility, My friend, Mine!…end of statement_, he felt his face twist into a sneer that could easily have become a growl until a fortuitous puff of warm golden air drifted through him and soothed the memory of his helplessness against his brothers' pain.

"Hey…" Sam elbowed him and nodded his chin farther up stream where one positively enormous willow stood out among all the other trees, bushes and flora, "If it's a Dryad or a Sprite what you wanna bet that's it's tree?" he challenged grinning, part of him feeling about to burst out of his own skin.

Dean nodded and wiggled his eyebrows, "Race ya…"

And they were off, legs pushing, arms pumping, trying not to laugh their energy away as Sam's neck-high legs carried him into the lead for a few yards before Dean dug down into his reserves and caught up, keeping even with Sam for the first time in a long time as they reached the tree grinning like children and clutched at its trunk while they fought for breath.

--

Adrienne Stevens clutched her head in her hands, daring to peek out from behind her fingers every so often to try and prove to herself that she wasn't really seeing what she thought she was. Over night her voluminous, recently turned gray hair had thinned to cottony wisps that seemed to break by the handfuls if she dared run a brush through it. The crows feet and smile lines she'd examined the previous evening had deepened by millimeters and when she looked closely into the mirror she could swear her eyes were starting to cloud. _Oh God what's happening to me? Why is this happening?_ she pleaded silently, the knowledge of her Marine Husband stationed near Baghdad was a bright spot in her deteriorating memory and she wondered if she had any children.

She watched her hand reach out, quaking as it jerked toward the phone at the edge of the dresser. _Just a little further…_she thought knowing she used to be able to reach the thing while sitting on the bed. _Come on Adrienne… you can…_and she felt herself slide off the edge of the mattress. Her feeble hands flailing, her nails splintering like rotting wood as she grasped for the dresser. She couldn't stop herself from falling. Her knee impacted with the floor, her forehead with the dresser and then there was something warm running into her clouded eyes as her back twisted and she felt something shatter in her hip while her body finally finished its traitorous dance and left her heaving on the floor, in too much pain to even cry out.

Breathing hard, as if she'd run for miles something fluttered near the floor and dashed out of her line of sight. She saw a foot, _Oh Thank Heavens… thank you lord… _she praised in her head as the second foot joined the first and its owner walked into the room.

She turned her head, trying to right herself enough to see who'd come. _Do I have any children?_ she wondered again noting the small feet, the childlike calves and knees. Her eyes moved upward, _Is that a plastic dress? What won't the children wear these days…_ she thought and found it really wasn't distasteful in any respect, just odd. The skirt appeared to be made of large leaves, lashed somehow together, and the bodice, wasn't really a bodice it appeared to be two more leaves though she couldn't for the life of her figure out how they were being held on. Then she saw the face and the mop of hair fettered and festooned with greens and flowers. The face was plain, perhaps a little dirty, but as clear and unlined as any smooth river stone and the eyes shone like opals.

Adrienne reached her hand up, her blood clouded eyes pleading with the youth before her. The she-being stepped closer to her and crouched before her, it took her hand in its own, its non-expression never changing though the hope that came through the mortal woman's eyes did cause her to cock her head to the side.

Minutes turned to memories and Adrienne remembered. In the fire of those opal eyes she felt her heartbeat quicken as she saw foresters tagging trees, she felt the pain of the trees as their bodies were torn asunder, violated by huge whirring machines with teeth that killed and wasted and ruined and even as she felt her body begin to stiffen, her limbs become immobile she managed to shake her head and gasp, "I don't own the company… it's not mine…"

_"I do not own the trees, the waters, but who will speak for them if not me?" _the she-being's voice rolled with the sound of Pan pipes through her as her face froze, her body twisted into driftwood.

--

Laura felt the phone vibrate in her pocket but it barely registered. She was a little busy at the moment. The urge that drove her from the hospital, that drove her to leave her car behind and walk through the darkest hours on the South Side of Chicago had led her to a neighborhood on the West side and a dilapidated house that despite having boards on the windows, apparently had inhabitants as well. She'd heard a scream from this derelict abode and knew she was where she was supposed to be. The job was set, she was supposed to stop whatever was happening in there.

She'd crept through the shadows, her body protesting and her mind still swimming with the last dregs of the sedatives they'd pumped into her. Her belly itched and twitched with every movement and she knew the staples were pulling, but she'd made a deal. Servitude for a soul and she wasn't about to renege on her end of it. _Besides,_ she remembered thinking, _I need to make sure I can still hack it… I need to know if I'm still worth…if I'm…_ but she hadn't been able to finish the sentence, not even in her own head.

She'd entered the house following the sounds of flesh impacting with flesh, of skin breaking under impact and of human despair.

Once inside she'd risen to her full height, there was no sensation besides rage, there was no pain as bits of skin began to tear and she charged forward, her wrist flicking her baton into extension as she brought it down on the back of the mans' head then quickly stepped over him and took the woman's wrist in her hand.

"Let's go…" she nodded softly as the dumbfounded woman looked at her with a mixture of fear and wonder. Uncertain if she were a devil or an angel.

"Neither… now come on," Laura urged helping her to her feet.

Laura's eyes fell on the woman's abdomen and she felt her world rock, she had to be six months pregnant. She was battered and bruised and just a little bloody around the mouth but she'd kept her arms wrapped protectively around the life she nurtured.

Laura gasped and felt the hairs all over her body stand at attention while warm heat flushed through her, and she laid her hand on the abdomen without asking permission.

Her mind's eye was greeted with the sight of oily yellow eyes peering down into a crib that held a beautiful chocolate brown baby with mocha eyes that sparkled happily. Yellow flames flashed in the periphery of her vision and she gasped stumbling over the man on the floor as the woman dashed to her side and tried to help her. Laura clenched her teeth and felt wet on her belly as the man beneath her started to rouse, whether from her impact atop him or because she hadn't hit him hard enough she did not know.

"Go… get out… run… keep that baby safe! Please… for the love of God keep that baby safe… pay attention to its six month birthday… just go…" she gasped with one hand on her bleeding abdomen and the other trying to fight off the flailing grasp of the man beneath her.

The woman ran, frightened beyond reason by this strange… emissary who was probably going to wind up dead at the hands of her ex-husband.

She ran out into the night, down the street to her best friend's house and began to bang on the door.

Inside the house Laura drove her elbow into the back of the mans' head trying to knock him out, smash his face against the floor, anything to enable herself to get off of him and get the hell out of there. He grunted and she felt his body go lax after the third blow. She pushed off knowing she was risking everything if he was playing possum but she didn't have much choice.

Apparently he was stunned enough as she lurched from his back and shambled clutching her abdomen in one hand, toward the back door and out into the pink-gray sky. _I guess it's daytime… wow…_she thought absently and nearly tripped down the plank and cinder block set up that comprised the three steps to the back door. _Just get out into the alley, just get out into the alley… I should've killed him…he's human…is he? Well… sorta I guess… I should've just killed him…oh crap!_ she saw a shadow move in the interior of the house and lurched toward the garage and the alley beyond it. That was when her cell phone began to vibrate and she felt a furious and startlingly strong hand entwine into her hair and jerk her off her feet.

"…bitch! Who the hell you are coming into MY house…tryin'a bust up MY head… and letting MY bitch get away!" he snarled whipping her from side to side by the hair as if he were some mad puppy and she no more than a sock. "You gonna Pay now… You gonna be my bitch now… least till I says you ain't no more!" he sneered and stepped into the downward jackhammer punch that made the world go away for a while.

--

Please.

sifi


	3. Chapter 3

Wounds – chpt 3 – sn. fic.

by: sifi

--

The sun shone warm and golden on the Winchester brothers as they sat chuckling against the trunk of the tree, the late summer wind fingered their hair while the sun kissed their faces.

"Wow, this is really beautiful here," Dean sighed running a stalk of thick stemmed buffalo grass between his fingers before sticking it into his mouth and leaning back, his hands behind his head. A slow bemused smile grew from the corners of his mouth as beside him Sam sighed contentedly.

"There was this park Jess and I used to go to once in a while… this is the kind of day we'd've gone," Sam said softly and Dean could hear the smile in his baby brothers' voice.

"Picnic?" he asked.

"Yeah… most of the time… sometimes we'd pick something up from the store, but most of the time she'd actually make the stuff… I wish you could've known her Dean… you would'a loved her."

Dean smiled and continued basking, "She made you happy,"

"Every day…" Sam nodded around his own stem of grass, for the first time since her murder his heart didn't feel like it was shattering in his chest.

"Then yeah, I would've loved her," Dean agreed.

They sat in companionable silence for a time as the sun slowly rolled across the sky, they were lulled by both the breeze and the gurgling stream nearby.

"Hey Dean?" Sam asked.

"Mmm?"

"What were we supposed to do now that we've found the tree?... I mean there's definitely something… enchanted… going on here…"

Dean smiled and rocked his head back and forth, "I don't know. How do we find out if the Dryad or Sprite is even responsible? I mean, I agree Sammy, this isn't natural… not for us anyway," he mused loosely.

"I know… it's just so… peaceful…" Sam nodded

--

Pain was the first thing she recognized and those oily yellow eyes Dean had told her about, were the first things she remembered. _Please let her have got somewhere safe._ She thought with regard to the woman she'd helped. She opened her eyes slowly and tried to fix her position and her surroundings. The yard and the sky rolling in a kaleidoscope of colors as her assailant tossed her around like a knotted sweat sock came back with a flash and she knew she was in real trouble. A flash of light caught and drew her eye to it and she realized that the day must be nearly half over.

"So you back now bitch?" a hard deep voice asked drawing her eyes to its location.

She felt the floor rumble as he got up from his post next to the window and waved her baton through the air, making sure she could see it as he slapped it hard into his palm, a promise of something to come. _I know people like you… you're in it for the fear…you're in it for the power it makes you feel to hurt someone…to make them beg or plead or cry, I know your kind_, she thought wondering what she'd do. How long she could hold out before she too would break, begging and pleading, and giving him what he wanted just to make it stop. Her eyes flicked down to the floor near her belly where she saw she'd been bleeding, but not as heavily as she'd feared. _I'm sure he'll gladly change that…_

"You look at me when I'm talkin' t'you!" he bellowed and raised the baton as if to strike. It was a means of measuring how much or how little she was going to take. It was a way of testing the victims' limits. He didn't have much time and he couldn't afford to kill her, not when the woman carrying his child had gone and called the police on him. Police that were, at that very moment, in "Standoff" position outside his house, waiting for what might come to do so.

She looked at him, met his eyes directly. She was afraid and she wasn't afraid to show it, but what she would hold back on for as long as possible was any possibility of giving him power over her.

"You need to let me go," she said, trying to influence him despite dry and raspy voice. She kept contact with his eyes and rolled onto her side realizing that her hands were bound behind her back. She tested her feet and found that they too were bound. _Greeeaaat…_

"Now why I'm gonna let you go? So those pigs out there can come in here and cuff me up and haul my ass to 26th 'n Cal? I don't think so… that's'a last place my ass needs to be…" he shook his head and she realized there was something about him that was different. The last person she'd encountered who gave her this feeling when she tried to influence them was one of her best friends, Tiny. The man who'd re-built Metallicar for her beloved Dean.

_Dean…if I never see you again, you'll always know I love you… you have to always know that…Somehow I'll make sure of it… he said the cops are here? This is good…this might be good…_

"You haven't passed the point of no return yet… I'd be willing to stand up and state in court that you were reasonable… that once the anger had a chance to dissipate you acted to end this as peacefully as possible," she offered working herself into a seated position, trying with everything she had not to grind her teeth as the torn ends of her incision rubbed dully against each other.

He cocked his head to the side and his face turned blank before something, some certainty tightened his mouth into a very fearsome frown, "You makin' fun'o me ho! You think I'm gonna believe some bitchass ho like you's gonna say anything good abou' me!" he snarled and this time he swung.

Laura was fortunate enough to read his posture an instant before he started the swing. She turned her body, throwing her self onto the floor on her side, squeezing her shoulder as high as she could to protect her head.

Since she'd started hunting Laura had received more than her fair share of licks from some of the creatures and entities she'd fought, demons included, but there was no sensation quite like that of a three pound steel baton being slammed into her upper arm with the force a six and a half foot, 350 pound angry, man could muster. With the 'thud' and 'Crack' the fingertips of her left hand went instantly numb and breath fled from her chest even as her stomach turned and she feared she'd throw up. Then the pain came.

"Look at me…am I in a position to make fun of you?" she ground out on the floor still trying to catch her breath. He stepped forward, her baton raised once more, this time testing again, "You said the police are outside… they won't wait forever… they'll move in and gas us both… if they have to take you by force it won't matter what I say… if you give yourself up they'll go a lot easier on you and you know it…" she ground between clenched teeth. She felt as if someone had taken a drill with a three inch bit and started right into the bone of her arm. In her minds eye she could see the cells bursting, turning black, blood rushing to the area even as spindles of bony trabeculae waved languidly in a sea of microscopic activity.

He cocked his head to the side and she felt her heart begin to pound. As a nurse, the incarnation she'd had before she became an emissary, she'd seen more than her fair share of this representation of internal conversation. _If I ask he could fly off the handle… hell he could kill me… he might anyway…point…_ "Can I ask you a question?" she asked.

"Just did," he observed sneering and thinking himself funny. She huffed and nodded, once more trying to seat herself upright on the floor.

"Is there a voice inside your head you're hearing?...I see you tilting your head, like you're listening to something… maybe something inside?" she suggested softly.

For an instant she thought he might have nodded, that he might have said, 'why yes I do as a matter of fact… doesn't everyone…' well, that was what she'd hoped anyway.

The hard part of dealing with psychosis, and psychotic behavior was its true unpredictability under flexible circumstances. This was one of those times.

Her captor flew into a rage, his face contorting into some horrible parody of affrontery and indignation.

_Oh Shit…_ was all she could think before the rolling, dodging and killing began in earnest.

--

Dean looked at Sam and shrugged.

Sam's return shrug said one thing, 'so pick it…'

So Dean pulled his small kit from the inside pocket of his jacket and went to work while Sam kept lookout.

In moments they were inside a beautiful, highly polished foyer, the hardwood floors gleamed in the rich yellow of the waning day, satin ribbons of grain shimmered as they both stood for a scant moment basking in the simplicity and opulence of the timber house that had been passed down to Adrienne Stevens and her Marine husband Freddie.

Sam closed the door behind them even as Dean rapped hard on the inside of the jamb, "Mrs. Stevens?" he called, his voice rich in the open area.

"Mrs. Stevens?" Sam added in his own tenor.

"No kids?" Dean asked.

"No kids, husband stationed near Baghdad…"

"You take the down…no the kitchen's downstairs," Dean thought and shook his head. The last time he'd told Sam to investigate the bedrooms, he'd wound up part owner of no less than five pounds of imported Austrian crystal shards, fragments, and splinters… all embedded into the flesh of his back.

"I'll take the upstairs…" Sam settled the issue, "Not every place can have crystal lamps… just be careful yourself…" he admonished fully aware that neither of them was as safe as they'd once allowed themselves to believe. That lesson had come at a heavy price for both of them, emotionally moreso than physically, but having grown up with John Winchester as their father, they also realized more fully than most that with lessons that hit so hard, the rewards in the end were also greater.

Sam kept his hand on the pistol in his jacket pocket even as his foot hit the first step and he watched his brothers' back move carefully under the well and into the kitchen first.

_Rabid cutlery first, then the rest of the house,_ Dean thought while pausing at the entryway to the kitchen to watch Sam's feet disappear up the stairs and onto the landing. His mind still felt hazy from this afternoon's… respite. Neither of them was quite sure what had overcome them in the woods, but they figured it may well be a side effect of the being's nature. Perhaps some kind of spell to befuddle or charm or even capture indefinitely, which would explain a great deal about how this Adrienne Stevens could go missing for three days and return without memory. _Now for the sixty four thousand dollar question… are Sam and I gonna lose a decade from hanging there this afternoon? I mean if it's the effect that causes the aging and exposure is proportional to the time aged… oh wow, that's almost an algebraic equation! Eeeww… algebra… _he shook his head, _But still, did we lose time? Did we lose years? or is this something more… personal?_ he wondered taking in as much of the house as he could. The whole thing was built from local timber and as he passed through the kitchen and into the formal dining room he thought he might be starting to understand a little more than he had a moment ago. He stood at the buffet against the wall and searched the faces of the three foot long, blown up photograph that was dated in the late eighteen hundreds.

The photograph immortalized half a dozen men in suits, with one woman who stood in the center in a white dress. Their fashion, obviously very high for the time stood before a simple sign that read, "Ariadne Lumber – Est. 1894".

"Hey Sam?" Dean called knowing he knew the word Ariadne from somewhere and wondering if his trusty Professor Peabody would know it off the top of his head.

"Dean!" Sam called at the same time.

_Oh God not again…_ Dean felt his heart race and bounded back to the entryway and up the staircase.

"Sammy?" he called making sure to keep the depth of his concern from his voice.

Relief coursed through him as he felt tingly shockwaves through all those lymph-node places when Sam stepped into the hallway and motioned him to the room at the end of the hall.

_Don't DO that to me man!_ he thought angrily, then held back the smile that wanted to come with knowing his brother was safe.

Instead he let his curiosity shine through and loped easily to the end of the hall and into what could only be the master bedroom. He drew up next to Sam who stood looking at a piece of driftwood wedged between the bed and the dresser.

Sam raised his hand and pointed at the timber, "D…do you…" he stopped and looked at Dean, "Am I crazy or is that a face?" he asked.

--

Laura sniffed hard then winced. Once again there was almost nowhere in or on her body that didn't hurt. Even her lips and jaw hurt as she set to working on the duct tape her captor had wound around her wrists. She sighed grateful for her lean and flexible build that had enabled her to maneuver her arms under her legs and bring them in front of her. She didn't know how much time she had but she knew one thing, she was not going back to the hospital, at least not as a patient. She'd got to this point on her own and she'd damned well get back to CCH for her car on her own. Then she had plans to put this forsaken place in her rear view mirror and never look back. Still, she'd done what she'd had to do. She'd saved the woman and her baby, but maybe only long enough for the child to be born and for Big Bad to come for it and kill the mother in another nine months. _Some time is better than none…if you had me save her now… maybe someone will save them then…_she thought spitting out plastic, fiber and adhesive even as it tore the tender skin of her inner lip. _God I really screwed this up… why would you do this? Why would… why wasn't I better? Why didn't I do better?_ she wondered as the binding finally snapped and she quickly unwrapped her ankles.

As she leaned forward to remove the last of the tape from the legs of her jeans her eyes fell to her thighs and the series of black marks already welted and swollen at least a half an inch above the scant amount of skin that remained unmarred for the moment. Her breath shuddered in her chest and her eyes clouded, burning hot and feeling scratched by sand despite the fluid over them. _Don't lose it… don't lose it now… there's a boat load of cops and newsies and civvies out there… you gotta get out of here before they decide to charge…before they can't take the waiting anymore and launch some tear gas through the window…_she pulled her knees to her chest and pressed her forehead to them for a moment, allowing this one indulgence for the moment before stuffing everything down as far as she could, hauling herself to her feet by the doorjamb and wedging her shoulder against the wall as she leaned down and worked her pants back up with her good arm.

_Cry about it later… get out now! Just run Laura…just hide… bury it all down, go find yourself a cheap motel, take a shower, take a nap, rethink this whole thing… you're not cut out for this… look at what it's done to you…who do you think you are? Someone special? Someone that makes a difference? Someone that matters? What's wrong with you? _a terrible tiny voice nibbled in the back of her mind as she looked under her arm and met the lifeless eyes of her captor, his chin cocked oddly over his shoulder staring sightlessly at her as she moved stiffly from room to room, trying to find a way to leave the house unseen by all the watchful eyes out there.

--

tbc

what's going on out there? In your heads… need to know.

thanks

sifi


	4. Chapter 4

Wounds – chpt 4 – s.n. fic.

by: sifi

--

With no less than three blocks behind her Laura was finally able to drag herself onto the sidewalk, leaving the media circus, the police and the neighborhood curious to their waiting game. She was well aware of the fact that by killing her attacker, no matter what travesties he may have visited upon her, (and investigators would know what he'd done, forensic sciences would tell them more than they'd want to know), she would quickly become sought by the law for questioning in the very least. The only positive was that no one here knew her name and there was no reason for her DNA to be on file anywhere. She could simply fade away and eventually return to anonymity. Night time had become her time anyway and fading was always best left to being done in darkness.

As she limped up to the bus stop and fished two singles out of her pocket she garnered a few curious looks. The sight of a battered white woman in this neighborhood was a curious and rare one. She leaned on the sign post breathing hard and holding her bad arm close to her body, "Miss?" a kindly older man asked softly from her side.

She turned toward the voice and met glistening kindness in that weathered brown face, "Would you like to sit down?" he asked gently. He was still 'old school' enough to understand that sometimes a gentle touch is a welcome thing, even among strangers. His hand radiated warmth into the center of her back between her shoulder blades.

Tears stung her eyes as she nodded then shook her head at the prospect of eventually having to get up again.

"Thank you," She whispered and focused on shoving everything that wanted nothing more than to scream out and be heard, down into her toes.

To her susprise the kindly older man stood with her. Bent and stooped as he was himself, he gave her his arm and any other support she required while asking nothing.

When the bus arrived he helped her up the stairs and sat with her through the torturous ride over cratered streets that went un-repaired, lost in perpetuity to idiosyncratic bureaucracy and socio-political neglect.

When they finally reached the stop at CCH the kind old man helped her down the steps and asked if she wanted him to stay with her, to which she shook her head and smiled with tearful gratitude as she took his strong and gentle hands into hers and pressed her lips to them, "Thank you… thank you more than you'll ever know…" she choked.

--

"Okay, so in Greek myth Ariadne was a Woods Goddess…" Sam drawled as Dean flopped onto the bed and sifted through pages of material.

"So they name their lumber company… their **Lumber Company**… after a woods Goddess… isn't that a little… oxymoronic?" Dean asked with furrowed brow.

Sam just cocked his head in that shrug of his and asked, "So how's it connect to Adrienne Stevens… and… is the connection direct or through the husband?"

"Looks like it's on her side… the Great Grandfather…" he flipped through some pages, "… Uh… Apo… Apostolis.. Pho…topolous… so there's the Grecian connection… starts the company for his wife… Adrienne… who our lovely lawn ornament is named after..."

"Dude not cool!" Sam reprimanded shocked.

Dean's brows furrowed again and his mouth dropped open questioningly, "What? If we can't fix this or find some way to get this reversed… she's a piece of driftwood Sam! That's what's not cool! You think Fred Stevens is gonna be chock full of all that U.S.M.C. 'Whoo ah…' when he finds out his wife is a piece of timber? Not to mention how she's gonna feel about it… if… she can feel anything that is…" he stopped. At the incredulous look on his little brother's face he snapped his mouth shut and decided he didn't want to choke on his knee cap since his foot was doing an adequate job of sticking in his throat.

Sam shook his head and snickered at the helpless look on his brother's face, the same one that always got him out of trouble or had charmed the pants off many a woman, "Yeah… okay so why would the spirit or sprite come after her?"

"Unless…where is that?..." Dean grumbled sifting through more paperwork, "Ah yeah… look at this…" he joined Sam at the table and slid a copy of a news article under his nose, "Apparently the old man was a regular conservational trendsetter…" he scanned the article, "Oh here it is… says he has what he called, a 'contract with the land' to plant wherever he cuts…"

Sam arched an eyebrow and nodded approvingly, "A contract with the land… a deal with a Dryad…" he suggested.

"Maybe," Dean shrugged sifting once more and coming up with yet another article, this one far more recent, "…at least till this…"

Sam scanned the document, his expression changing as he found the pertinent points and sat back in the chair looking hard at Dean.

"What?" he asked feeling like he might if he'd just walked into the Dallas Cowboy's Locker room wearing a tutu.

Sam nodded, his expression open, "I am impressed… you could give dad a run for his money in the ambiguous connections department…"

Dean felt himself start to blush and pursed his lips, "It's not THAT ambiguous…"

_Geez, first an Oprah moment in the woods and now he's impressed and comparing me to dad.. who… he …can't stand… is that a good?_ his face slid into "I'm thinking" mode and he scratched his head.

"What?" Sam asked.

_Nah… it's Sammy… he meant it as a compliment…_ "Nevermind…" Dean shook his head, "So what do we do? Go up to the Great Grandson and tell him he can't renege on the old man's deal with the Dryad or he's gonna end up driftwood like his sister… cause I gotta tell you Sam… I like the woods and stuff as much as the next person… as long as I'm not in 'em… I mean Wendigos… Ga'los… HELLO not fun… course that whomping did pop my sternum back into place…" he cringed and placed his hand on his breastbone while turning his head uncomfortably.

Sam grinned, "Yeah or Laura did something… wasn't that about the same time she called in the Sidhe to pull sentry duty at Bobby's?" he asked.

Their eyes met and flashed at the same time and Dean fumbled into his coat pocket to see if she'd called him back yet. He expected to see a message notice, or a missed call notice, or something… but as he scrolled through the menu, checking the last few calls he'd received he frowned.

"Huh…" he huffed and placed the call while nodding to Sam, "Check and see if she called you…"

Sam did and shook his head.

"Hey Laura it's me again… uh, still haven't heard from you… hope you're doing okay sweetheart… call me 'kay? Just…" he swallowed hard and rolled his eyes as he caught sight of Sam trying to suppress a smile, "…just call me… 'kay?"

Sam frowned as Dean hung up, "Still nothing?" he asked and watched the wheels turning his big brother's head even as he frowned and pursed his lips then shook his head.

"I don't like it… she would've called back, or left a message or something by now, no matter how sedated they'd had her… if she could get out of the hospital she could call,"

"What do you want to do?" Sam asked knowing what he'd want to do if it were him in Dean's position.

Dean puzzled for a moment then breathed out and dialed another number on his cell.

"Yeah… Bobby… Dean… have you talked to Laura lately?.. no like today kind of lately… Yeah, she was… they said she did, but they also said she… escaped… well yeah, we just figured she went and got herself a hotel room or something but she's not answering… no just voice mail… Yeah… yeah… you too… put out the world willya?... Okay… yeah…thanks…" he closed his phone and looked at Sam who sat watching him with almost clinical intensity.

_What's it going to take to get him to let her in?_ he wondered then amended, _Well, to admit what he feels?_ he remembered being inside his brothers mind. He remembered everything he'd come across while in there. When he saw the women he thought he'd walked into a smorgasbord of pornography but to his sheer and complete amazement he'd found only three women, as lovers, that held a place in Dean's heart. Bobby's niece Mercy, Cassie, and shuttled, sequestered away, pinned at a distance from scrutiny, Laura. Sam still wasn't quite sure what that meant in regards to his brother's feelings, but he knew that look on his face when he talked to her, he sensed the ease he had when he was with her, and he wanted nothing more than for him to be able to live the fullness, the wholeness that lingered whenever he'd spent any substantial time with her.

While inside his head he'd been privy to so much more than Dean would ever know. There were memories of their childhood and the sense of belonging Dean had back then; the one hundred percent eagerness he'd had when charged with Sam's well being, the rending despair he'd felt when he thought John had simply abandoned him in the woods only to continue his own life with Sam, 'the one who mattered', as he always thought of him. The shame he'd felt from his encounter with Aaron Beyers that summer, both for himself as a victim in a perpetual state of denial to some tarnished Lancelot who'd failed all the young children out there by not being able to save them or protect them from predation. He remembered it all and sometimes, he wondered how Dean shouldered a burden of such astounding proportions, and he wondered why he did it so willingly.

_I couldn't do that… I couldn't ever imagine feeling that responsible.. Dean if I told you how much I admire you… Would you?... Could you accept it?_ but he already knew the answer. Maybe some time in the future his big brother could accept a simple statement of that nature, he was coming towards it, Sam could feel that much in the evolution he was sensing taking place. But that time wasn't now, and he knew it.

Sam arched an eyebrow at Dean.

"Well he hasn't heard anything… the hospital never even called and told him she'd 'run away'…"

"But he's listed as her emergency contact right?" Sam asked.

Dean nodded, "Yeah… well, you know… his number never changes… Gah… freakin' kills me…" he ground out around a clenched fist.

"So… what do we do?" Sam asked expectantly.

"We finish this, then we head to Chicago," Dean nodded.

"Okay," Sam nodded.

--

She carried her overnight bag into the room and tossed it onto the bed. When she'd entered the motel she felt them look at her strangely. As she checked in she kept her head down feeling just a bit like Tina Turner might have on that night she left Ike. The only difference was that she was no one.

"Can… is there anything…" the desk clerk asked stiltedly, wincing as the bruises, the blackening, and the blood that she'd tried half-heartedly to wipe off her face painted a grim picture in his imagination.

"Peroxide… privacy…are there menus in the room?" she asked.

The poor kid, who couldn't have been more than nineteen nodded, "I could call if you want…" he offered and swallowed hard.

She tilted her head up and looked him in the eyes "Get me a small sausage pizza and a bottle of rum… put it on the credit card… bring it to the room yourself… got it?" she pushed and felt him give.

"Of course…" he smiled vacuously and handed over the key to her room.

Inside the room Laura shut the door but did not lock it, nor did she throw the deadbolt. She moved stiffly into the bathroom and started the hot water running in the tub. By the time it was half full she was finally undressed and standing naked before the mirror on the bathroom door. Her eyes traveled from black bruise to black bruise, each of them a raised streak on her skin. She tried to reach, to move her arm but the scream that issued from inside the limb, the plea for mercy that rang in her head told her it was indeed broken. Of course the fact that it was swollen to twice its normal size was a giveaway as well.

On the bed, next to the overnight bag she heard the cell phone vibrate and looked at it, her face blank, her eyes dull and empty as she grasped it and looked at the incoming number. The corner of her mouth twitched and her hand clenched around the piece of plastic for a long moment until the vibration stopped and she knew the call had been forwarded to voice mail. Biting back a howl from somewhere she didn't understand she torqued the phone between her fingers, popping the hinge before throwing it across the room where it stared benignly at her from the floor.

She walked up to it and with only emptiness to keep her company grabbed her boot and crushed, and crushed it until it ceased to function.

--

Please… too much? Too little?

Tell me what you think eh?

Thanks.

sifi


	5. Chapter 5

Wounds – chpt 5 – s.n. fic.

by: sifi

--

"Welcome to our world…" Sam and Dean said together when Paul Photopolous looked at them, his face blank with shock and disbelief as he watched a feminine figure emerge from the bole of the proud willow tree.

In the light from the fireflies that danced around her, her body seemed to shimmer hypnotically, a dance of the wind and all things Earthen and all three men felt the firm hold they usually kept on reality start to slip through their fingers.

She looked at the three of them then focused the piercing orange fire of her opal eyes on Paul who cringed and whimpered as a wrenching discord of Pan Flute passed between them. Sam and Dean watched, unable to hear what was transpiring between the Dryad and the Heir to the Ariadne Lumber Company, it was after all a private conversation, but they didn't mind. Things were moving along a lot more smoothly than they usually did. Paul had known the story of the Deal but had never believed it to be more than a simple fairy tale passed down through generations. It was when they'd brought him to the Stevens house and shown him the remnants of his sister that he'd finally condescended to join them on a trek into the woods. The face frozen in terror and agony would haunt him for the rest of his life if he didn't do something.

They seemed to converse for quite a while as Sam and Dean watched the exchange, their postures altering slightly as some new deal was brokered perhaps, they didn't know, they didn't care. It was peaceful there. The stars holding steady above them, pinned to the curtain of night with the moon in their midst mirrored the Dryad and her circulating fireflies and they wondered if it was supposed to be that way.

In the unyielding mask that was her face her opal eyes began to cool, the orange fire moving through the spectrum to yellow, then green and finally a resonating blue as her hand reached out and touched Paul's cheek. His eyes bulged for a scant moment at her touch before he hung his head panting hard, trying to catch his breath.

The Dryad turned and now focused her attention on Sam and Dean Winchester, her eyes burning bright Cobalt blue as both boys gasped and crashed to their knees, each locked for a moment by her gaze.

"_Chosen…" _her musical voice wafted into Sam's ears as Dean looked at him, his mouth hanging open, as she leaned forward, her finger tilting Sam's head upward for a moment before her lips brushed past his. She ran her finger down his cheek and he felt himself flush as she moved to stand before his big brother.

"_Chosen…"_ she repeated and bent before him, her finger beneath his chin now and tilting his head upward. He assumed he'd get the same quick brush of the lips and felt his heart break into a crushing gallop as she straddled his legs, twined her arm around his neck and pressed her mouth fully to his tasting of honeysuckle and pine, _"Guardian spirit…born defender… stay…forever, eternal bliss here…" _her music filled his head as he felt himself fall back clutching her to him, tasting her richness and bounty in every breath he drew, feeling her against him, cool and dry in his hands.

In her kiss Dean bore witness to possibility. Sammy's, John's, his own, the possibility of life and conversely of death, of winning this war they were engaged in, and in losing it and everything in between. He stood on the point of a pin, every possibility radiating outward from him, the destiny of the world, the universe and all eternity his to choose. All he had to do was use the force of his will to make it happen. To his left he saw Sam standing on the point of his own pin, and to his right, John on his. All around him he began to see people, some he knew, most of whom he didn't, each standing on the point of their own pins, the point at which all of reality begins and ends and is formed with intention. Each reality, every possibility a thread to be chosen and once chosen would lead to another pinpoint with another set of infinite possibilities. The potential was staggering, disorienting and monstrous.

"Sammy is this real?" he asked and saw his brother shrug.

"I don't know…dad? Where are you?" Sam asked.

"Just where I am," John gave a non answer.

"Okay… so that's just a representation of him…" Dean nodded and looked down to his immediate left where he held the hand of the Dryad in his own. "You're just showing me a metaphor right? I mean this is the kind of stuff Laura loves to gush about… man she should be here, she'd love this concept… right?" he asked.

Her opal eyes turned green and she bent, picking up a strand of nearly invisible silken potential and gave it a tiny tug. Dean's eyes followed the strand and he saw a bathtub come into view, he knew that hair and profile that leaned back against the tiled wall. His heart squeezed fearing something horrible in the stillness of that posture until he watched a hand run through her hair, saw the head duck down then re-emerge glistening wetly. What he couldn't see from that position as the Dryad released the thread and the bathtub slid back to wherever it belonged was that the water was pink.

He felt her lips leave his though her scant weight remained straddling his hips and he cleared his throat and took a moment to look around. There was no sign of Paul Photopolous, nor of any driftwood that looked like him, which Dean took as a good sign. Sam lay stretched out on his stomach, his head buried in his forearm as soft snoring grunted from him and it seemed the moon had crossed half the night sky.

"_Stay?"_ she fluted questioningly into his head, her eyes turning pink now as she slid her hands up his shirt and over his trembling belly and chest. She left behind a trail of cool wherever her hands touched his skin and he shivered as she caressed him tenderly. The fire in her eyes promised warmth that her body could never give he realized, and grasped her shoulders, sitting up and pressing his mouth to hers, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her into him. She yielded, her body fit into his, her mouth was pliant but there was no heat, no warmth.

He held her away from him and looked into her eyes and knew she understood without his having to say a word. The pink faded to blue-green and then back to blue as she rose from his hips, stroked his cheek gently and cocked her head to the side, _"Rest Chosen… We will watch over you here…"_ her voice assured and Dean felt his eyes fall closed as rapidly as his body fell to the ground.

--

"It's open," she called from the bathtub when the desk clerk knocked and announced he had her pizza and rum.

"Oh jeez…" he blushed and averted his eyes failing to notice she'd draped a towel over herself even as she remained in the water. "Uh… Miss Finnegan..."

"It's okay, I'm covered I promise…" she said flatly and watched as he slowly raised his eyes noting that she was indeed covered in towels and water that was pink instead of clear.

"Uh… I brought your peroxide and some bandages and stuff too… uh… you're not… please tell me you didn't… oh God…" he stammered.

"Don't worry I didn't slash my wrists nor do I intend to… it's just some scratches and scrapes is all… just set the stuff on the mat. And don't worry, I'll clean it all up and you'll forget about it soon enough," she assured him though she lacked the energy to use her influence.

Once he was gone she lifted the towel over her belly and looked at her incision again. The edges were torn from her ordeal and she was still oozing blood but from what she could tell with her gentle prodding of the site, the innermost edges had already knitted together which meant there was no water getting into her abdominal cavity and the blood was all from the topmost half inch of her skin. She knew she wasn't supposed to submerge herself but considering she lacked the energy to stand and shower she was safer in the tub. Nausea came in waves, one minute she thought she'd be fine, she could deal with this, it was just a power-thing, it was just about fear and control and… and the next minute she'd be hating the tears she couldn't stop from coming out of her eyes and the weakness she felt, the fear she had no choice but to admit to herself she'd felt. The despising of her own vulnerability, her failure to protect herself though she did take some solace in the fact that she'd saved the mother and unborn baby. She just prayed she hadn't saved them from one fate only to land them in another that was even worse. She was also disturbed by the fact that she had no remorse about killing the man.

Reaching carefully, knowing she'd have to have her left arm taken care of eventually, she used her right and grabbed the bottle of rum, clasped it between her knees and unscrewed the top. With a deep breath she drew long and hard on the bottle almost gagging after the third long chug before she set it down and grabbed the pizza.

--

A few hours later, around the same time Sam and Dean were nearing the Dryad's tree a knock sounded on the door to her room.

"Still open…" she called from the bed where she sat up with the remote in her good hand dressed in one of her favorite t-shirts and sweats.

"Uhm…" the same boy entered hesitantly and looked nervously into the bathroom where true to her word no trace of blood remained save what supplies lay in the trash can.

"Yeah?" she asked hoarsely from the bed.

"Uh, you have a message… I tried transferring the call…" he stammered and looked at the phone on the nightstand. The plug removed from the wall and laying over the phone itself, "Yeah… disconnected…"

She held out her hand and felt her temper flare, _Nobody knows I'm here… yeah like they couldn't find you if they wanted to…talk about a tight knit community…these guys could find Waldo! Lemme guess… been trying to get hold of you blah blah blah blah… just leave me the hell alone…don't…_she sucked down a sob and wouldn't let herself finish the though in front of this child. _I'll never stop loving you Dean but please… leave me alone…I can't be what you need right now…I'm sorry…_

She took the slip of paper from the boy and looked at him, "Lock the door on your way out," she directed and watched him leave before shaking her head and leaning back to read the note.

"Laura… call me. Bobby."

Something inside cracked and she laughed within the sob that rolled out. _Bobby… yeah, Bobby, that's right… not even Dean…which is good I guess… he probably asked Bobby to call around… I mean he did call y'know…God I'm not even worth his own effort… Now Come on Laura that's not fair! You know he's working a gig… you're the one who told him not to come for the surgery… you're the one who didn't want him to see you vulnerable…Yeah… whatever…I don't need anyone feeling sorry for me…oh no you're doing a fine job of it all by yourself… freakin' stupid! You know that? God you make me sick…Yeah, thanks cause I need this too… maybe I should just get back in the tub and take that razor blade… Don't even go there… not after everything you've been through you're not going to let one little incident put you over the edge! And do you know what that would do to that boy you claim to love? Huh? Do you think he'd be able to forgive himself? Do you think for one instant that with his…NO! Okay No I don't… and I won't, but God it's tempting…Just have another drink and shut the hell up. I should call Bobby, see if I can convince him everything's alright…my phone's broke and everything's fine… yeah I should do that…Not if you can't carry it off,_ her drunk but usually rational voice shook its head. Sighing deep she turned on cartoons and took another set of three hard, gag-worthy slugs from the bottle then capped it and pulled the comforter over her.

--

_Why is there a chorus of crickets chirping around me?_ Dean thought as his senses slowly came back to him and for a single heart beat everything stopped. Then he heard the chirping again and everything came rushing around him as he fumbled through his jacket pockets.

"Mmm yeah?" he moaned and tasted honeysuckle and pine in his mouth as he rolled himself up onto his side and next to him Sam began to elongate himself and rouse.

"Yeah… t'sokay what's up Bobby?" he asked feeling awareness returning easily to him.

"You did?" his eyes popped open and his voice cleared instantly, alerting Sam to something happening that made him sit up and scratch his head apathetically while he searched Dean's silly-putty features in the moonlight.

"What? What did he say?... when?... WHAT?" he barked startling Sam fully back to his senses.

"About six hours… he did? No that's good unless she decides to try and drive…and you don't know how? No huh?... Okay… but you're not sure?" he bobbed his head in a standard 'yes/no' fashion, "Yeah I know how that can be… alright we're pretty much done here anyway so… yeah, we're on our way… Thanks Bobby…" he sighed and shut the phone pulling Sam to his feet.

"What? Laura?" he asked.

Dean nodded, "Yeah, Bobby found her in a little hotel near Rockford…"

"But?" Sam asked feeling it coming already.

Dean sighed and looked around at the spot. The tree somehow seemed a little less majestic and some of the sense dulling enchantment had gone, but it was still a lovely spot.

"He left her a message to call him, like five hours ago, the kid from the desk hand delivered it to her, but she hasn't called him back yet. The kid also said she was beat to hell when she arrived… bloody, bruised and limping hard… she had the kid bring her a pizza and a bottle of rum… he said the bathwater was pink… bloody… Man I don't like this… I shoulda been there… what the hell could have happened Sammy? What could she get into having just got out of surgery? Son of a Bitch! I should've been there!" he cursed angrily and began to jog through the woods knowing Sam was at his side.

--

tbc

It's a little expositional but… necessary, hmm.

Please and thanks, as always…

oh by the way… the fun's just starting.

sinister

sifi


	6. Chapter 6

Wounds – chpt 6 – s.n. fic.

by: sifi.

--

She felt hands on her body and startled awake hugging the cheap motel room comforter to her chest just before a stabbing cramp seared from her left arm through to her brain. _Oowhahow…I gotta get this taken care of…god I can't take the pain…_ she thought and looked at the clock on the nightstand. It read 2:33a.m. _…ungh.. hurts…_ she thought and reached for the bottle next to the clock. Her hand hovered and she sat up instead, bringing the half full thing with her into the bathroom where she emptied her bladder then dumped what remained of the amber liquid down the sink.

Done with that much she sat on the edge of the bed and shook a couple ibuprofen into her hand and swallowed them with melted ice from the bucket. Her hands shook for the pain and she thanked whatever powers there were that she'd eaten enough to prevent a hangover. _So what do I do? _the prospect of facing another whole day before stocking up on some much needed rest was too much to bear. She refused to go to a hospital. _I won't go back into one… I won't… so don't… find a doc in the box and at least get an x-ray and a sling… just to check if it's really broken or not…_ the idea of getting to her feet let alone putting up with getting anywhere or even focusing enough to drive simply drained the energy from her but the idea of trying to sleep through the throbbing agony that was spreading through her whole body was equally untenable. She didn't know which way to turn and so sat on the bed wishing she hadn't dumped the rum but glad she had. It was too easy to escape that way, _And you sure as hell don't deserve the easy way out… not after how bad you screwed this up… Shut up! I did the best I could!... Sure wasn't enough was it? Oh man… Bobby knows where I am… he'll call the boys… What… you think Dean's gonna come and hold your widdle hand? huh? He's got better things to do than to babysit a pathetic little nothing like you… why do you think he had Bobby do the calling? Huh? At least he's got a destiny… you? You're a leftover…_

--

Dean sighed as Sam finally seemed to relax against the door and started to snore once more. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy his brothers' company, especially with what they'd been through recently. It seemed that over the last few months Sam had grown so much, even as far back as the cabin, when he'd stood beside Dean after Dean figured John had been possessed. His little brother seemed to have started realizing that what they did was so necessary, it was part of a natural balance…_Dude seriously, you gotta not think at this time of night… you're starting to sound like Laura… you know… freaky… But in a good way…Yeah… it's just that I'm proud of him… I should tell him that… he'd chick flick all over it but he could handle it… course then again it could sound condescending too… yeah like that matters? I raised him! I can be condescending if I want… _another little voice, this one from beneath the cellar stairs of his mind added shyly, _And he stuck to his word too…he's never asked for me to share either…I wonder what he really knows? Ahhh it doesn't matter…no matter what happened… no matter what I had to do… he's got my back… _he huffed to himself and smiled softly while casting a glance at his sleeping little brother, _I do believe he does…I still gotta give him hell once in a while… can't let him off the hook that easily… but... it's just cause I do love you little brother._ He smirked and slid Bad Company Ten from Six into the tape deck making sure the volume was at a reasonable level. He didn't want to wake Sam and regret his charitable thoughts toward him when he started bitching about 'mullet rock' again.

--

_You need to leave here… they're gonna come and they're gonna put you back in the hospital and you're never gonna get out cause if you go back in… you're gonna crack, you can't take that chance…Even Bobby'll make you go if he could be convinced to drag his ass to come and get you…He won't, and the boys are busy so I can stay put for a few more hours_ her rational mind finally won out over the voices of doubt and fear in her head and sitting in the reclining chair, cradling her arm tenderly on a pillow closed her eyes and let herself drift into a light sleep.

Outside in the parking lot, in a beat up late model Cadillac a familiar face frowned, and turned it's head first to the left, then the right, working out the kinks from having sat so long. _This bitch is a challenge I'll give her that…he picked a good pawn for the defensive line…but no way he's gonna win, no way…_ the face smiled and nodded to itself, _You go ahead and rest, get your feet back under you so I can kick 'em away again…I can knock you down forever bitch until you decide it's just not worth getting up again… I'll be there then too. One more captured pawn off the board leaving the way that much more open to check mate…yeah…. _And it sat waiting while she slept.

--

Nightmares crept stealthily through the scape of her mind, breaching what few defenses she had left in these wee hours. Everyday activities took on an ominous bruise green cast as she dreamed she was back in the hospital, it was immediately after her surgery and she awoke to find herself restrained, manacled spread eagle to Morgan's brace with naught but a flimsy jonnie for protection or coverage. Her nurse was an enormous and violent man who beat her with her own baton and her doctor was Dean, the man she loved above all others who stood leaning casually against the wall, making notes in her chart. His task was to diagram the blows struck and measure the volume and quantity of her plea's with his home made EMF meter. In the hallway she could hear Sam and John egging the nurse on to 'hit her again', until she begged him to stop. When that was over, Sam came in dressed in a magicians tux and with theatrical flourish flipped a black silk cloth from a stand that held a dozen daggers like the one he'd pushed into her throat on that far away day at Bobby's house. His eyes gleamed with malice as he began to juggle the blades and she suddenly wondered if perchance he wasn't meant to miss her during this show.

All through this nightmare Dean stood by watching, and documenting, his eyes occasionally meeting hers but lacking in the recognition of her as anything other than another subject to be studied.

She looked at the faces of those she loved, the family her heart had adopted with the saving of her brother, and nodded. She understood now, _To them I'm just another oddity... just another... freak in the sideshow of their lives...I should've known..._she raised her head and looked into Sammy's eyes understanding everything suddenly. Resigned, she nodded and he inclined his head an instant before flicking his wrist.

--

Dean pulled Metallicar into the parking lot as Sam raised his hand and pointed to Laura's recently repaired sedan. Neither man could say quite why but they both breathed a sigh of relief with the realization that she was still there. Maybe things weren't going to be as bad as they thought after all.

_Yeah I'll believe that when my baby here gets more than 20 miles to the gallon..._he sniffed in the back of his head while his hand stroked the dash absently, _That's okay baby you're worth every penny..._

With a nod they stepped from the car and headed into the lobby of the hotel.

Bobby had finagled the room number from the front desk clerk the evening before and striding confidently through the lobby they waved and strode to the left wing of the place finding the first floor room with no trouble at all.

Dean knocked, they waited.

He knocked again, and again they waited.

"Pick it," Sam directed but Dean was already crouched.

"Dude this feels eerily familiar right now..." Sam noted and felt his short hairs stand on end as he thought of his big brother trapped in a nightmare of demonic origin.

"Yeah well it's not... I hope," Dean muttered and sprung the lock, pushing the door open slowly, his heart pounding as mental images of the worst possible scenario flipped through his mind like the photos in a nickelodeon.

Sam had his gun out and down at his side, Dean mirrored the posture on the other side of the door and went in first.

The room looked fine, no blood or gore anywhere, the bathroom was clean save for a few bloodied remnants of tissue, cotton and gauze in the garbage can. The only scent that came to them was pizza and hard liquor. Dean moved in with Sam behind him closing the door against prying eyes.

Laura sat in the recliner, her left upper arm nearly black even under the sleeve of her oversized t-shirt, it was propped on a pillow and her head lolled to the side, another pillow folded between her head and her shoulder. Her breathing was deep and even, and once more he saw her sporting a blackened eye, a split welt on her cheek and a split lip.

"Laura?" he asked crouching at her side and gently laying a hand on her uninjured shoulder.

She moaned and turned her head and he tried again, "Laura...come on honey wake up..."

Her head rolled and her eyes came open as she took in a deep breath and oriented herself.

The first thing she saw was Sam, his puppy dog eyes rolling up to hers questioningly. _Where'd your tux go?_ she thought and noticed the warmth of a hand on her shoulder that drew her eyes to it.

"Hey..." Dean smiled tentatively sensing something unusual in the energy here.

She leaned her shoulder out from under his hand and winced with the added pressure on her left, held breath seeped from her lips as she squeezed her eyes closed and shook her head, "Hey... what're you doing here?" _Don't let them hurt me anymore...please..._

Dean shrugged and cracked his half smile while stroking her hair gently, "Got a little nervous when we didn't hear from you..."

She shook her head, "I'm fine..."

"Got a doctors note to go with that?" he asked, almost feeling like he was testing the waters. _This is wierd...Where's my smile? Where's my 'hey handsome'? Where's my girl?_ he wondered feeling his belly flip.

She shook her head again and straightened up in the chair, letting the pillow at her neck fall to the floor as she drew the supporting one out from under her left arm and groaned in agony.

"Hey... it's okay just leave it..." he suggested trying to make sure it stayed where she needed it to be, he looked back at Sam, "Water?"

Sam nodded.

"Just use the ice bucket," Laura suggested listlessly as Dean pulled up one of the desk chairs and sat beside her.

"What happened?" he asked.

She shook her head, "Just... got a call... had to go... got a little clobbered..."

He felt his mouth press into a tight line as his finger gingerly lifted the sleeve of her 't' towards her shoulder, exposing the blackened line of flesh beneath, he hissed a breath and shook his head, "You're gonna have to have that looked at y'know..."

"I know... doc in the box... no hospital... no more hospitals..." she shook her head and her eyes filled up fast before she ducked her head and blinked it all back with a shaky breath.

Sam came back from the bathroom with the ice bucket full and a cup of water for her as well which he handed to Dean who held it to her lips but she shook her head and pushed his hand away.

"Sam..." Dean said softly. His brows were deeply furrowed and his expression shone with tension.

"Yeah... okay...I'll go get us some coffee," he mumbled backing toward the door with a strange feeling in the pit of his belly. _Something's way wrong here... and I don't even need to be psychic to sense it..._ he thought edging out into the hallway and closing the door behind himself.

"Laura what's wrong? What happened? Why didn't you call back?" he asked leaning forward, trying to catch her eyes with his.

She tilted her head up an met his eyes finally then shook her head, "...sorry sweetie... just tired," and she tried to crack half a smile but couldn't quite cut it.

_She's lying...sorta..._he realized and found he didn't like the feeling. He knew this woman before him, he knew her energy, and no matter how 'tired' she was, if there wasn't something very wrong she would've been up and pacing at the very least working hard to convince him everything was alright.

"Don't do this Laura... please... let me be there for you for a change..." he asked.

Images from her nightmare passed across her mind's eye again and with a deep cleansing breath and a head shake to dispel them, she touched his cheek and smiled wanly, "I got the crap beat out of me sweetie, that's all... and it hurts... a lot... everywhere...and I didn't want you to see me...weak," she explained. _Well, at least it's the truth... it may not be ALL the truth, but it's all the TRUTH._

He huffed amused and astounded by her admission, "Are you kidding me?" he chuckled and felt his eyes filling to match hers, "...hey, who's pieces have you been picking up on a regular basis since we met?" he asked smiling, feeling a break in the clouds that surrounded her.

She nodded and fought the smile that wanted to come out but Dean couldn't let it rest.

"Ahh? Ahhuh! See... that there?" he asked pointing to the quivering corner of her mouth, "Y'know I hear it takes twice as many muscles to hold back a smile as it does to let it out... give yourself a break... let it out..." he coaxed and grinned when she nodded and caved to him.

"That's my girl," he sighed pressing his palm to the side of her head tenderly, and feeling a raised welt there too, "I'm sorry..." he soothed wiping the moisture from her cheek with his thumb.

"Me too..." she nodded slowly and breathed, _Okay then... he'll never have to know..._ she pushed the darkness down once more, hoping she could find the strength to keep it there, hoping she could use his strength to keep it down, away from him.

Dean called Sam who was sitting across the street at a local eatery waiting for breakfast for them all, while Laura pulled some clothes from her bag and carried them into the bathroom.

_Huh... honey I know everything you got and you're getting modest on me now?_ he thought curiously and frowned knowing she was a lot worse off than she'd let on if she didn't even want him to see, which of course spurred his curiosity. _That's alright... all in good time... all in good time._ He nodded and shrugged with his mouth when at least some of..."All In Good Time" turned out to be just then.

He heard her grunt and cry out, "Dean...please..."

"Yep," he bounded up from the chair and stopped short at the bathroom door, his mouth falling open and snapping shut just as quickly as a grimace bent his features.

Her back, shoulders and sides were latticed with heavy, raised black welts from where her own baton had been used against her. The amount of skin he could see above the waistband of her jeans, that was bruised blackly, vs that which remained her normal ivory was almost 50/50, "Holy crap..." he breathed, "What can I do?" he asked as she slowly slid the straps of her bra up and flapped the back hooks at him.

He stepped forward and with the lightest touch he could muster fastened them for her, "Are you sure you want to wear this thing at all?"

She nodded, "Yeah..." _I don't feel so vulnerable._

He helped her finish dressing, wrapping her into a black shirt and working the buttons with a deft hand that told her he'd spent more time than most his age dressing someone else. _Probably just as much time if not more than most his age UNDRESSING people too..._she smirked to herself glad to have contributed some to that tally, _He's gonna make a heck of a father one day..._she thought knowingly.

--

"Let's try and give our girl a nice ride there Francis..." Dean admonished sliding into the back seat on her right and holding her steady against him.

Sam smiled worriedly into the rear view mirror and nodded pulling the Impala smoothly out into traffic.

Allowing herself a moment to breathe Laura laid her head on Dean's shoulder and closed her eyes, his arm solid and soft behind her, trying to be what she might need. Her body shook as she drew in a breath laced with his own scent enhanced with that of Earth. The combination cut to her core and ripped a gasping, choking sob from a place so deep its eruption sent shivers through Dean as he met his little brother's eyes in the mirror.

They were so focused on their passenger that neither man paid any attention to the late model Cadillac that pulled out of the motel lot and remained just a few cars behind them as they traveled down the road.

--

tbc.

Please... sorry so slow

sifi


	7. Chapter 7

Wounds chpt 7 sn fic.

By: sifi

Dean sat in the corner of the exam room trying to look nonchalant while the Dr. examined Laura, but he was finding it increasingly difficult to feign limited interest when every time the man touched her she had to suck back some kind of hint of pain. _She's worse than most guys I know…for the love of God woman, you're human you're allowed to feel pain y'know…_he chastised her silently.

"How'd you say this happened again?" the Dr. asked.

"I told you, I got in between a friend and her husband when they were fighting… and he didn't like it…" she groaned as he pressed the stethoscope to her back making her jerk away from him.

_She'll kill me…_Dean thought watching the exam play out, _if it were me I'd be pissed…she won't be happy…_he was thinking about telling the doc how bruised up she was but apparently this guy was on the same page as he moved to undo the top couple buttons of her shirt.

"I'm just gonna take a look here…" he started but she clasped his hand with her good one.

"No…you're not… order the Left Humerus x-ray… period," she said sternly.

Dean leaned forward slightly and cocked an eyebrow, he wasn't sure if he'd ever seen her use her influence on anyone. He'd seen the results after the fact but he didn't think he'd ever seen that instant of blankness, as if time itself skipped in some odd direction.

"Sure thing…" the doctor smiled and circled something in her chart before moving to the door, "It'll be just a moment,"

Dean watched her leave the room with one of the techs and leaned toward the doctor who sat at the counter making notes for a moment before turning and meeting his gaze with a smile.

"That was pretty brave of her… getting in between a fighting couple… y'know just yesterday morning in the city there was a hostage situation that involved a pregnant woman, her ex-husband and a good samaritan," he asked.

"Really?" Dean asked.

"Yep… it was all over the news… guy was beating on his pregnant wife, some strange woman comes bursting into the house, clocks the ex, urges the wife away and winds up getting caught herself," he divulged. Dean could tell he was still somewhat under the influence of her 'influence' since he apparently hadn't made the connection.

"Really… what else?" he asked.

"Well… the police eventually stormed the place, found the ex-husband dead on the floor, his neck broken… and the woman who'd helped the ex-wife… nowhere to be found… the cops are still looking for her… they need to get her side of the story before they can wrap up the case… seems the guy had a history of violent crimes… been in and out of jail half a dozen times over the years…"

Dean nodded, "Sounds about right…" just as the tech brought Laura back in and slid a couple films onto the light box.

Even Dean's unpracticed eye could see the fracture that went halfway through the long bone of her upper arm.

He turned and faced them with an apprehensive smile, "Well, as you can see the bone is fractured," he traced an obvious dark line in the otherwise white representation, "But the good news is that nothing is splintered or displaced so… a sling should do it for a couple weeks, then we'll take some follow-up films and play it by ear alright?" he suggested as the nurse entered the room with a sling and helped her put it on.

Laura smiled between the doctor and Dean, "This sucks man… I'm left handed," she shook her head feeling as if everything was going to be alright after all.

"Deal with it?" the doctor shrugged shaking her hand first then Dean's, "Get that script filled, you're gonna be in a lot of pain till that bruising fades…"

"I know," she nodded already feeling as if some of them were fading. _Might just be psychosomatic but man I feel worlds better already…Okay, I can deal with this._ She thought and smiled the first genuine smile Dean had seen since they'd got there.

"You should've let him check the rest of you out y'know," Dean said softly into her ear once they were in the hallway.

She shook her head, "No need… I actually feel a lot better already…stiff and sore like you wouldn't believe but… it'll pass…" she smiled and stroked his cheek with her right hand, "I'm sorry Dean…forgive me?"

"What for?" he asked smirking.

"I didn't mean to be so whiny… or to… worry you… I was just feeling sorry for myself," she admitted holding his beautiful green eyes, looking for the forgiveness she craved.

He shook his head and smiled to light up the room before ducking his head and taking her lips between his for a moment then nuzzling the side of her head and whispering into her ear, "…Just don't do it again," he grinned and nipped her lobe.

"I'll try not to," she reciprocated the nip and they stepped into the waiting room where Sam set down his magazine, picked up the folded newspaper wedged between himself and the arm of the chair, and joined them as they exited the building.

"Y'okay?" he asked.

She nodded, "…hairline fracture… long as I stay off it for a while it'll be fine…"

"How long?" he asked.

"Doc says a couple weeks, but he doesn't know what we do right?" she smirked, "I'm betting about three or four days…"

"Great… then all you have to do is lay low and get the hell out of Illinois…" Sam muttered as they got inside the car.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked as Sam pulled the paper out from under his arm.

"The guy that whooped my ass?..." she started and smiled weakly, "…yeah… well the cops want to talk to me about it… I uhm…I killed him… no demon, no possession, no excuse…I just…couldn't take anymore y'know?…and waiting for the cops to come in… it would've been worse…" _It's still the truth… God I hope they kept some details out of the media… please tell me they kept… at least THAT detail out of the media… please… _she thought cringing into her own spine on the inside as she nodded with a wincing smile at them.

Dean nodded, "I'm sorry,"

She shook her head and looked him square in the eye, "I'm really not. His wife was six months pregnant…Oh My God!" her eyes lit up and she pressed her hand to her mouth while searching between the boys' faces.

"What?" they asked in unison.

"The baby… it's gonna be special… the Demon? Your Demon… is gonna come for it on it six month birthday… I saw it when I touched her abdomen…"

--

_Well, that's an interesting development…_ the familiar face in the Cadillac thought and caught a glimpse from Laura's memory, of the same eyes she'd seen hovering above the baby's crib, _Well Old boy… Let's just see how all this plays out… then we'll see who gets who…_ it thought nodding to itself as it pulled out onto the street before they got into the car. It knew where they were going. No matter where they went in between they'd have to go back to the hotel to pick up their belongings before going anywhere else.

The creature in the Caddy nodded. It would wait as long as it took and if need be, it could do what it had to do while they were on the road, though that might prove dangerous for the girl. _Those boys had better not get in my way though…I won't have it… though they could certainly be useful… she's fast… almost got her feet back… heh… heh…_and then the laughter rolled out of its mouth and into the air and as it did so, just passing over the Caddy a black bird fell out of the sky, dead.

--

They'd stopped for some beers, some take out, and to get her prescription filled, _favorite flavor cherry red, _she'd thought when Dean reminded her. Then they'd returned to the hotel, trading her single for a double for the night and figuring to high tail it out of Illinois first thing in the morning. If the desk clerk hadn't called the cops based on the composite sketch the pregnant woman had given the police then in all likelihood they wouldn't. In a town like Rockford they probably figured she'd done the city a favor by killing the man.

While they ate Laura read the article in the Tribune knowing that paper would have the most complete story in the city. She'd been here frequently enough since the night she'd arrived in CCH with a hole in her belly, to know which paper to go to for whatever information she wanted. She knew as much about Chicago as many of the long time residents did and probably in some ways more, and though it could be a truly magnificent city she'd seen far too much of its dark places to ever want to stay.

When she finished the article she breathed a sigh of relief from her very toes and caught Sam eyeing her speculatively. _His loyalty is to Dean…he suspects I was looking for something… man I got no poker face! This sucks! Could I lie to him? Would he know? He might suspect I was lying but I doubt he has enough control over his abilities to read the truth so that's a plus…God help me, Dean does it so automatically… it's second nature to him, it doesn't even qualify as a power… it's so much a part of him…God I love him… yeah so does Sammy… he'll never let you hurt his brother y'know… I'd never let myself hurt him… what do you think you're doing? PROTECTING him! It's no big deal! That kind of thing's about power! That's it, Power, Instilling Fear, Control, all that kind of crap… it's not about sex! It's not about anything that matters! Then why won't you tell him? Give him the chance to give you comfort like you've done him? Because it would hurt him and I won't allow that!... _

"Wow, they make me out to sound like some kind of freakin' Robin Hood… that sucks," she sighed handing the paper back to Sam who set it on the nightstand.

"I don't know, I think it's pretty cool… rich have too much… poor have to little… balancing the scales…" Dean smirked shrugging with his mouth as he sipped on a beer and flipped through channels until he found an old Simpson's episode and sat contentedly against the wall eating chicken fried rice out of the box.

--

_Get up! You're needed…_ she felt sternly from somewhere near her spine as her eyes popped open in the darkness and she stroked the forearm over her tummy before moving it off of her and stretching a bit.

_Come on! You need to get up! You need to leave now! MOVE!_ that inner voice spurred her with an urgency she was unaccustomed to. She'd always had time, always been given some kind of notice when she was needed… travel time included… these urgent issues had her more than just a bit frightened. Had it been because she'd been laid up that there was a… 'surplus' of evil deeds? Had she somehow, through being injured and needing time to repair shifted the balance she was charged with helping maintain?

_It doesn't matter,_ she thought making sure Dean was still sleep-breathing as she slid from beneath his arm, _this is what I signed on for… I go where I'm needed and that's that, until the day I die or Cernunnos… _her head exploded with pain that drove her to her knees off the edge of the bed and made her gasp hard though she held back every ounce that wanted to whimper, _…ahhh…releases me…_ she finished the thought and felt the pain begin to dissipate.

In the deep gray of the room she slid a pair of jeans on and traded her Power Puff Girls t-shirt for the black button down she'd worn earlier that day, noting how much better her body felt with just a few hours passage. _I swear you're magic boy…_ she thought looking at the angelic face that brought so much mischief to the world. After dinner she'd lain down on her right side and Dean slid behind her, turning her just enough so that she was leaning against his warm broad chest while his hand found comfortable purchase on her hip. Sam was sound asleep in the bed opposite theirs by the time they realized there would be no more cartoons that night and shut off the television to get some deeply needed rest.

She smirked and huffed as she looked at the man in her bed who made her heart warm, _You will never know Dean Winchester… you'll never know how much…_ she sighed sliding her heel into her boot and creeping from the room on cats paws trying to be so careful not to awaken the one Winchester who, on some level, was constantly aware.

As the door closed behind her, Dean slid from the bed and shook his little brother who sputtered awake. "Something's going on… I'll call you…" he said and followed Laura closely, but not so closely she would know it.

Sam watched Dean leave the room then focused his attention out the window where he watched his brother use the spare set of keys he'd pilfered from her purse to open all the other doors to the vehicle before sliding into the backseat, immensely grateful she kept the dome light off.

He saw Laura get into her car and pull out of the lot, knowing his big brother was in the back seat laying low, even as he dressed and drew on his shoes and jacket waiting for word. Sam got up, emptied his bladder and sat in Metallicar's drivers' seat waiting for a call from Dean wondering, _What the hell's going on here?_ as that strange twinge in the pit of his belly came back again.

--

sorry so crappy folks

Chpt 8 thinks it might be different…

We'll see..

Please R&R

really need to know where y'all are at cause…

well… sifi hopes it'll get better… please bear with…

you know… shrug

sifi


	8. Chapter 8

Wounds – chpt 8. s.n. fic.

by: sifi.

--

Dean's eyes fluttered open just as Laura slid to her knees, her eyes creased in pain. He watched from under his lashes as she dressed, looked wistfully at him, at which point he felt his heart thump just a bit harder, and slid out the door. Before it was shut, he was up, one hand in her purse digging for the spare car key and the other shaking Sam awake.

"Something's going on… I'll call you…" and he raced stealthily out the door to the emergency exit. He watched her walk purposefully toward her car and ran in a crouch pressing the 'all unlock'. He could see something odd, perhaps distracted in her posture as she opened her door, (he opened the rear passenger door and slid quickly onto the seat waiting, timing the closing of his door with hers).

He breathed a silent sigh of relief and settled himself across the back seat wondering if she'd see him or if she was as focused as she appeared.

As she pulled out of the parking lot he thought about the last time he'd seen her 'called', it was the gargoyle mission, just after Sam had left him behind and just a couple days before her near destruction at the hands of some demon-ling that had tried to break him. He smiled to himself warmed by the memory of her sliding off of him, the feel of her body atop his just as warm and responsive as the whole of her nature. _She's never said anything about pain… but it could just be her arm too…she left her purse and didn't leave a note…not that she couldn't expect to be back before morning… but I've never known a woman to leave her purse behind…except in the car…Why is he doing this to her? She needs to rest and heal…is he such a cruel creature?… I mean Cernunnos is supposed to represent fertility and rebirth…this just seems… cruel…I mean she's not even discharged from the hospital and he calls her to a place where some sick bastard beats the hell out of her… God if she hadn't killed him I'd be tempted to do it myself! Son of a Bitch! Hit a woman! Beat on a pregnant woman! His own freakin' wife!... I'm glad she doesn't regret killing him…_ his thoughts went on as she drove, the sounds of The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour, and the haunting strains of Blue Jay Way serving only to heighten his anxiety rather than assuage it.

Before a full hour had passed, and Dean had managed to doze back to sleep, Laura pulled her car into what could only be a gas station/convenience store. He'd been in more than enough of them in his time to know the unnatural white glow that poured through the windows and the fully surreal feeling that light lent the late hours of the night.

Laura left the car and Dean dared a look up through the window to see her walking toward the building, where even from this distance he could see something strange was going on. The eyes behind the counter glanced out the door and he ducked wondering why he was doing it. It was instinctive though and he obeyed.

In just another moment he peeked up again and opened the door as quietly as possible while Laura walked confidently up to the door. _Oh Come on! she's not just gonna walk right in there! She's gonna walk right in there…_ he wanted to 'psst' or somehow get her attention, stop her from going in but that same instinct that made him duck down in the car kept him quiet even as he crept toward the building.

Laura threw the door open and strode in as if there wasn't anything amiss.

As his angle changed through the lot, his heart beat faster and his stomach started to twist. The face behind the cash register didn't belong to a convenience store clerk that much was for certain, _Crap!_ he thought and pressed himself tight to a shadow against the wall trying to get an idea of how many, and where. He saw his girl stop and stand stock still in between the two men, the one at the register and a second one who seemed to be holding onto something halfway down one of the aisles.

The man behind the register lifted a gun and held it in a practiced hand, pointing it at Laura. Dean couldn't hear what was being said but he could tell she was trying to broker some kind of deal. He patted himself down and cursed. His gun was in his bag at the motel and without it, if he went in there he knew he might do more harm than good. _I should probably call the cops at least…no… that'll just make it worse…_ he retreated into the shadow and made his way back to the car wondering if she had any extra weapons in there. Whatever she was going to do to change this situation, or save whoever she'd been called to save, he was going to be there to make sure these bastards didn't just walk away.

He was halfway back to the lot when the familiar report of multiple shots fired came from behind, followed by a horrible hoarse scream of denial in a voice he knew far too well. His heart stopped for a beat before he wheeled and raced back, the situation had gone bad. _Laura!_ he thought taking quick measure of what he could before bursting through the door in a crouch and plastering himself against the wall. The man behind the register was no longer visible, neither was the second man down the aisle and Laura too could not be seen, but he did hear the sound of crying.

"Laura!" he called in a whisper, approaching the register cautiously and peering over the counter where the not-a-clerk lay on his back, his eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling, one of his sockets full of a throwing knife. Beneath his body lay the body of the real clerk in a pool of blood, his throat apparently cut.

"Gruesome…" he grimaced and shook his head before moving toward the aisle he'd seen Laura in as she'd tried to negotiate with these men.

At the foot of the aisle he stopped and stared, uncertain of so much while he tried to make sense of the scene before him. The second man lay on the floor dead though he couldn't say how, a woman in the same type of cheap polyester blend uniform shirt as the real clerk lay on the floor, her head in Laura's lap, both of them covered in blood and human meat, her eyes were angled toward Laura's whose were now closed as she held the woman's torso in her lap, her arms wrapped around her, rocking her back and forth as tears streamed in bloody rivers down her face, then Dean noticed through the gore, the woman had been pregnant, not far enough along for the baby to sustain its own life, especially since its mother's heart had been blown out of her chest, but definitely far enough along to be a horrifying, devastating loss.

Dean moved as carefully as possible, walking around the aisle, approaching from behind, his whispered calls obviously unheard by the woman he'd come for.

_Alright think… she's not going anywhere yet… I gotta see if there's any security video here… I mean it's just a mom 'n' pop shop but… alright honey you just stay there… don't you go anywhere… I'll be right back…_ he thought and moved through the store.

When he'd determined that there was no video surveillance and no live feed from any mini-cameras he returned to the aisle where Laura remained on her knees with the dead woman in her lap. She was no longer sobbing and the tears seemed to have run their course but she held the corpse tight to her, still rocking her as if the comfort she was trying to give could be accepted.

He came up behind her on a track of bloodless flooring where he wouldn't have to worry about leaving footprints behind or slipping.

"Laura… honey we gotta go…" he urged dropping his hand onto her shoulder as she turned with reflexes he never would've guessed she might have, or strength to equal those reflexes, her hand grasping his and twisting the wrist, trading the thumb and pinkie in position, driving his elbow into his ribs to avoid having his wrist broken, "Hey…hey it's me…" he drove his eyes into hers, forcing her to see him for him through the mask of red she wore.

"Dean?" she asked with furrowed brow and let go of his hand, her lip quivered and she felt tears coming again as the carnage around her seemed to somehow become more real with his presence.

"Yeah… c'mon we gotta get outta here…" he pressed reaching under her arm to try and help her up.

She cried out and he realized he had her left arm then shifted his grip, "Sorry… come on you gotta help me out here…" he asked urging her up by the right arm and getting his hand and arm around her ribcage to hoist her to her feet.

She shook her head and he could feel her trembling in his hands, "I blew it… God I screwed up… I got her killed… and she was… she… she was…" she started and felt her breath coming in short gasps, unable to believe her failure.

"It's not your fault…" he assured her, feeling the basic truth of the statement. He could feel it in his guts, something was… wrong…since she'd chosen not to call him back, since she'd run away from the hospital, something was just plain… wrong and he aimed to find out what it was.

She nodded, "…if I hadn't… if I'd just… been faster… or gotten here sooner… or I don't know… if I'd driven faster…how did you know I was here?..." she asked finally bringing her breathing back to normal as he walked her outside and stood her at the trunk of her car. He dug out the blanket she kept in there then wrapped her into it and shuttled her into the passenger seat and buckled her in.

"I felt you get up and hitched along…" he explained putting the car in gear and hitting the road leaving most of the carnage behind.

He pulled his cell from his pocket and dialed Sam.

"Sam… we're on our way back… no… bad… I want you to prop open the emergency exit…I can't bring her through the lobby like this…then get on the computer and find out everything you can about Cernunnos…" his heart leaped as beside him Laura cried out in pain and grasped her head, bending forward as far as her seat belt would allow and crushing her blood encrusted hands to her eyes that felt like they wanted to pop out of her skull.

"…Yeah… hurry Sam…" he pressed wincing as she cried out rocking back and forth, her fingers twining in her hair as the pain slowly began to fade away.

--

_Heh that was fun… too bad that boy had to stick his nose in… he's going to have to be stopped…_the creature in the caddy sighed to itself. These boys were not part of its game plan. It didn't know nor care what purpose they were to serve in the game they were involved in, but they were messing where they didn't belong. _This is not for them, I could sting them a bit… especially that older one…he could be so tender and tasty…_it sighed and shook its head, _alright… a little sting… maybe to get them to go away, if that doesn't work… perhaps a little more… I don't suppose anyone will care as long as I don't kill them… outright,_ a plan began to swirl in the creatures head laced with malice and cruelty, there was something so much more satisfying about breaking a pawn and watching it destroy itself than destroying it outright. _I will teach you to cast your emissaries into my path Cernunnos…your favored shall be shattered, driven to her knees where she will plead for mercy and curse your name for all ages…_ Again the creature allowed vocal laughter to peel from its throat, its confidence growing as its plan began to include two young meddlesome men. As it drove down the street with its laughter touching the air a mother possum waddling along the roadside fell over, its litter abruptly dead sliding from its back as its body began to convulse and blood began to seep from its eyes, nose and mouth. It lay twitching and keening in the night, it did not die right away, but it did die.

--

Sam kept his eyes open for headlights turning into the parking lot and had three false alarms almost jumping for the door before he realized it wasn't them. Headlights cruised past his eyes, the brights flashing once into the window of the room and he knew. He closed the curtains and dodged for the emergency exit, holding the door open as Dean guided Laura into the building. Her head was down and she was covered in a blanket. _What happened?_ he wondered feeling terrible that his research efforts hadn't turned up much that they didn't already know.

In the room Dean sat her in a chair and rolled the blanket off her head. Sam winced, "Is she hurt?" he asked wondering how she'd come to be covered in dried blood and what looked like flesh bits.

Dean shook his head in another 'yes/no' nod and motioned Sam to join him as he stripped off his coat and went into the bathroom where he started hot water running into the tub.

"Dean what is it?" Sam asked feeling nervous in the stomach at his brothers' speechlessness.

Dean stoppered the tub and sat on the edge of it scrubbing his face with his hands, "I think she was supposed to save another pregger… it was a convenience store robbery… she just walked right into it… but that wasn't what did it… I don't know what did it… it looked like she was getting through, like she was going to be able to diffuse the situation y'know? The guy behind the register had his gun on her but he… he was an old pro, he wasn't going to shoot anyone if he didn't have to y'know? That type?" he questioned and continued as Sam nodded that he understood.

"Even the partner… seasoned… I could see it in his face… I'm guessing she just went there for the woman…" Dean shook his head and felt his eyes misting a bit, "I didn't go in, I figured it might blow the situation y'know? Instead I went back to the car, to see if she had a gun or something, just in case she needed backup y'know?..." Again Sam nodded and he continued, "I wasn't even halfway back to the car when it all went to hell, I don't know… three or four shots were fired, Laura screamed and when I got there everyone was dead but her… the pregger… it was like a cannon shot out her heart Sammy… Laura's covered in it…"

"Oh my God…" Sam grimaced, his eyes flicking out into the room as he wondered how he'd feel if he was covered in someone else's heart bits, "Dean… why would she be sent there if she couldn't stop the situation? Hasn't she said since she took the oath that he puts her in places where he knows her presence and willingness to change things usually shifts the balance?" he asked.

Dean shrugged, "Yeah… I mean that's what I understood too… I mean she gets into it with the baddies just like we do but… it's the desire to act that enables the change to happen…" he muttered then caught the curious and barely suppressed smirk on his little brothers' face, "…well that's what she says…"

Sam said nothing as Dean shook his head, ran his hand in the water and squirted a bunch of shampoo into the quickly filling tub. When he turned back Sam was still looking at him with a very smug look on his face.

"Shaddup…" he smirked, "What'd you find out?"

Sam shook his head, "Nothing we didn't already know… yet…"

Dean nodded, "Okay, you keep looking… I'm gonna help her get cleaned up."

In the bathroom he peeled the blanket off of her, both it and her clothes were going to be a complete loss, everything was sodden and growing stiff and glued together. He sat her on the toilet and took her boots and socks off, then set to work on the blouse watching her face for any signs of awareness. His skin crawled, the last time he'd seen eyes that far away was the day he and Sam interviewed Carol Guinardi, the day she was murdered in her hospital bed.

"What's goin' on in there Laura? Talk to me huh?" he urged noting that the lattice of black bruises had turned blue and green and were quickly healing. Even her left arm was plainly purple instead of that frightening black and the swelling was almost gone. He found himself unnerved by her lack of reaction and he wondered what would happen when she came back from wherever she was.

He slid his finger under her chin and tilted her head so that he was looking into her eyes, "Hey… don't make me kiss you awake…" he whispered and smiled as she took a deeper breath and seemed to see him finally, "…hey…come on…" he insisted as he finished peeling the clothes from her skin and got her into the tub, "Where are you?" he asked.

She shook her head, the whole incident on a never ending playloop in her head, wondering what she could've done differently, wondering what the likelihood was that she'd encounter two men in two days time, both resistant to her 'influence' both with internal voices that had drawn their attention away and left them hyper-violent.

"What're the odds?" she muttered around the gentle circular motions of the washcloth against her face.

"The odds of what? Close your eyes…" Dean's voice cut through the videotape of her mind and she watched the ends of the tape flutter in a soothing breeze as she closed her eyes and felt warmth running over her slightly upturned face.

She wiped her face with her hands and looked at him with a comical expression of surprise, as if to say, 'When did we get to Disneyland?', she looked down at her naked self in pink water then up at him, her eyes locking onto his.

The corner of his mouth tilted up and his eyes flashed mischievously as he ran the washcloth over her shoulder, "Did you say kiss?" she asked softly and blushed magenta.

He nodded, "Mmm hm," and smiling touched her mouth tenderly with his.

--

tbc…

hope it's worth the energy to read…

Less upset about this chpt but let me know

how you all feel eh?

thanks

sifi


	9. Chapter 9

Wounds - chpt 9. s.n. fic.

by: sifi

--

"…yeah well until we can figure out what the hell's going on… why this son of a bitch is doing this to her she might be safer at Bobby's… the wards and magiks are still in tact as far as we know right? ..." Dean asked softly and cast a glance at Laura who sat curled in the reclining chair with her head resting in the crook of her good arm.

"Are you sure you want to take her there? I mean those are Cer..."he stopped as Dean smacked his arm, they'd noticed that mention of her patron Deity's name seemed to cause her pain where it never had before. "…magiks he gave her access to y'know?"

"You got a better idea I'm listening?..." Dean asked only half cocky, that alone told Sam quite a bit. His big brother was worried.

Sam shook his head, "Not really… it's just… it feels 'wrong' Dean…"

The older Winchester nodded, "Tell me about it, none of this is right…" he leaned back and scrubbed his face before looking deep into Sam's eyes, "…Sam… I don't know how to protect her…" he admitted without shame. "If it really is … HIM that's doing this, sending her to places where she can't do what she's supposed to… how is she supposed to function? How is she supposed to hold up her end…" he stopped and squinted his eyes at his younger brother, "A deity can have enemies right? I mean the universe is supposed to be antithetical right? Good and Bad, Light and Dark, Yin to Yang…all some kind of cosmic dance that keeps the universe expanding and the planets twirling yeah?" he asked pacing the length of the room, deep in thought and theory.

Sam felt his mouth drop open and simply stared at his big brother, once more brought to his intellectual knees out of sheer surprise.

He stopped short at the look on Sam's face, "Dude shut that thing, you're drawing flies…"

Sam's mouth snapped shut and he shook his head, "Antithetical? An ti the ti cal?" he questioned feeling sparklers in his body that reminded him of finding that Jean Auel book in Dean's bag.

"How many times I gotta tell you? You don't have to go to college to be a genius," he asked.

Sam scratched his head and furrowed his brow, _It could be an alternate reality…I mean he's not dumb, never has been but…I think HIS universe is the one expanding exponentially…_he cast a glance at Laura and shook his head, _...she's good for him that's for sure… okay… back to business… what's he saying?_

"What?" Sam asked.

"Pay attention Sam… unless you got something else we head to Bobby's in the morning, whatever's doing this… the more I think about it, the more I think it's not him…" he chewed his lower lip as Sam nodded. In the chair a squeak popped out of Laura's throat and her head whipped hard to the side, her brow furrowed and a deeply anxious sigh pressed forward before she seemed to settle again, though her expression refused to ease.

--

_They're coming closer! They're going to take you away…shackle you like you did your brother… it's only fair…there's no such thing as evil… only evil deeds…there are no evil beings… you sad pathetic girl… '…must've been losing her brother that put her over the edge…' _it focused its attention and gave voices to the words she would hear, _"She was the one who killed him…she said he was a demon or something..." _

_They'll have you in chains for the rest of your life… they still do shock therapy y'know… you're a prime candidate…if only you'd kept your mouth shut in the hospital… then they wouldn't know you're insane, then you could keep wandering around the country killing innocent people…what is it you always say? Three hots and a cot and all the Thorazine you can handle? Yeah… it's coming Laura…you've been left to your own devices for too long now and innocent people have paid the price… you killed that woman.. you killed those men… all those lives… that poor child that'll never be born because of you…_

"_It's a shame really… she had such potential…"_

"_You didn't know her before she snapped…I loved her… she was sweet but always so needy… kind of empty inside y'know?" _

"_Yeah, don't forget that whole… delusions of grandeur thing dude…"_

"_Yeah, that too, good point Sammy…" _

"_So what's the plan of treatment?" _

"_We'll see if the meds and the shock work… then if not, we may have to take more drastic steps…" _

"_Hey, can I…? You know… since she's restrained and everything… can I… you know… just once more…" _

"_Be my guest…"_

"_Cool!" _

--

Laura knew she was dreaming, she could feel her body sleeping around her but the images in her mind we so real, so vivid she couldn't help but wonder for a time which was which. The hospital corridors echoed with the passage of staff and patients in the hallway and the door to her room stood open with the Doctor, Dean and Sam standing there talking about her as if she wasn't there, as if she didn't understand or couldn't fathom what they might be saying. She tried to move and knew she was restrained and with her fuzzy head, as if she'd already been heavily sedated she didn't care so much, it's just that her arms were going numb in the restraints and she didn't think Morgan's brace should be here. She hadn't left it here.

_They said I killed him… oh yeah.. duh, I did. But how can they say there's no evil out there? They've seen it? They've fought the things that go bump in the night… Come on guys back me up here… course you'll probably wind up here too, but… did they say ECT? Cause that's not good… I better figure out how they want me to play this so I can get out…_ she saw Dean bounce on the balls of his feet clapping and rubbing his hands together then turn toward her, his beautiful green eyes glowing luminously in his face.

"Give us a few minutes huh?" he said over his shoulder and wiggled his eyebrows as Sam and the Doctor stepped out into the corridor and closed the door. Dean turned his attention back to Laura and ran his finger down her cheek.

"Hey sweetie you wanna let me out of these?" she felt herself ask groggily.

"Are you kidding?" he asked grinning hugely while clasping his hand around her throat and mashing his mouth to hers, violence the only promise in this kiss.

"Dean?... No… sweetie don't do this…. please… what's wrong with you?" she asked, then leaned in as far as she could while his hands hurt her everywhere he touched, "Christo…" she whispered.

He drew his head back and laughed, "You think I'm possessed? What do you think I am? Some sad player to feed your delusions, come on sweetheart… you know me better than that by now… all I want is action and I'll tell you, you were always eager but I gotta get me some of this kink right here… the best part is no one's ever gonna believe a word you say! So… guess what? I can do whatever I want!" he sneered, one of his hands still on her throat squeezing until her breath was wheezing even through the whimpers. "God is this gonna be fun…" he grinned and began to chuckle as her eyes grew wide with the sound of a zipper going down.

--

"Hey Laura… come on wake up!" Dean urged with his hand against her cheek. He'd picked her up out of the chair to put her into the bed and whatever nightmare she was having seemed to have kicked up to a full fledged storm. Something both he and Sam could relate to, both having had more than their fair share through the last year.

She gasped as her eyes popped wide, looking directly into his. He saw fear grip her hard as she swatted his hand away, whispered, "Pease don't…" and scrambled backwards until she fell off the far side of the bed, sandwiched between the box spring and the wall breathing hard and choking on little mewls from the back of her throat.

"Hey whoa… easy there tiger…" he soothed casting a glance at Sam who lowered his eyes, looking away from his brother, as if he was hiding something.

_What the hell?_ Dean thought and leaned over the edge of the bed to look at Laura who's breathing was still heavy though she was no longer mewling in panic. "Nightmare?" he asked.

She nodded and felt rather like a bug on her back until she could un-wedge herself and sit up.

"Wanna talk about it?" he asked.

She sighed dropping her eyes, "Yeah… I dreamed evil doesn't exist and you guys had me committed…" she chuckled realizing how silly it all sounded once it was out in the open, "…they had me restrained and you… were… getting your kink on…"

Dean pulled back, one eyebrow Spocked, the other furrowed as his mouth smirked, "Now honey you know me better than that... I'm not big on the whole caged bird thing… I like response…"

"Oh I know…" she nodded, "That's what made it really creepy,"

Behind Dean she could see red seeping from Sam's ears into his cheeks as he blushed, unable to not hear the conversation.

"Sorry Sam…" she apologized and blushed too as she climbed off the floor and back onto the bed, as he raised his hand in a 'no problem' gesture then shut down the laptop and headed to the bathroom.

"You want the bed to yourself?" Dean asked as she slid under the sheet.

She shook her head, "No… not at all…"

Dean nodded, "Good…" and stripped down to his boxer-briefs and t-shirt then slid under the sheets behind her, "We're going to Bobby's in the morning, until we can figure out what's going on…" he informed her and slid his arm under her head then stroked her hair and side as she pressed herself deep into him.

--

_Damn! I almost had her…I have to separate her from those boys…they're far too stabilizing an influence… I didn't realize the strength of the tether they provide for her. I knew she'd be difficult to break but with these human children at her side… I may not be able to make my point… He already senses something… I feel him stirring in the ether and now they want to take her into his wards? A place where he can send his Sidhe… no, I cannot have that… I will not allow it! I will drive her to her death first and leave myself to imagine the sweet agony I could have caused... I would rather have that than to lose this match… But the boy is so alert…my dark prophecies cannot penetrate his protection, whatever mark he bears is strong indeed…and I can't risk alerting Old Boy to my game… he will have no stake in the emissary…of that I must be certain… this is between Cernunnos and me..._

And once more it sat, waiting for just the right moment. The creature was nothing if not patient.

--

Laura slid out from between the sheets and leaned over brushing Dean's mouth before shambling to the bathroom. Her head was muddled by the events of the last twenty four hours alone, not to mention everything that had happened in the last few days. She still felt foggy and very much not herself as if her reality was somehow running sideways to that of everyone else. The dreams that had been plaguing her since her the third surgery had gone from awkward and uncomfortable to downright sinister. Everything she knew seemed to be undermined as if somehow any doubts or fears she might've had about her part in maintaining the balance were being amplified while her strengths and confidences were being slowly bent, or twisted.

She'd been puzzling about the two men, the ex-husband who'd assaulted her, and the thief who'd blown out the pregnant clerk's heart in the convenience store. Both of them had cocked their heads to the side as if listening to some other voice spurring them on, this after she'd tried to 'influence' both of them and found both of them resistant. In the last several lives she could remember, the number of people she'd come across that were immune to her influence was shockingly small, maybe half a dozen over a period of two hundred years, and now to find two in the span of two days… it just wasn't right.

But what set her mind for certain was having been lost in thought in the bathroom, so much so that she hadn't even noticed coming out, sifting through her bag, pulling out a throwing knife and sitting on the edge of the bed, pressing the blade against Dean's neck as he slept.

--

tbc

I think we're getting there, just in time for me to go on vacation!

Don't miss me too much.

sifi


	10. Chapter 10

Wounds – chpt 10 – s.n. fic.

by: sifi

--

Sam was the first to awaken in the morning, it couldn't be considered unusual no matter which of the Winchester brothers woke first, sometimes it was Dean and sometimes it was Sam. The thing of it was Sam had noticed, that when Laura was with them Dean slept later. It was as if he didn't want to waken because that would mean having to let go of her. He thought Laura might feel the same way since she seemed also to sleep not just late but very heavily too.

Thinking about it as he pulled on his jeans and hoodie Sam was happy that there was someone out there for Dean, and his mind flew to Sarah and then to Jess. He wondered if he'd told Jess about what he'd grown up doing, if she could have not only handled it, but accepted that part of him. He thought of his big brothers' words that far away night as they stood on the bridge off Centennial Highway when Dean asked him if Jess knew, he could hear the desperation in his own voice even now when he thought about what he'd said, _"No, and she's not ever going to…" _and Dean's subsequent retort, _"Well that's healthy…"_

He huffed, if he'd known then what he knew now, that Dean had told Cassie after only a few weeks with her, that it was possible for a normal woman… _Dude, Cassie freaked remember? Broke up with him? Actually I was talking about Laura… oh you mean the woman who remembers no less than three, count 'em three previous lives because she was under a curse? Oh yeah… forgot about that…Well she still didn't do the whole evil fighting thing and didn't know other people did… that's true… _to accept what they'd been taught to do all their lives and accept them for their part in it. He wondered if his life would have been different if he'd had that hope his brother had shown.

It wasn't the first time he wondered such a thing, but with the introduction of Sarah into his life, a woman who knew what he and his family did, had stood beside them doing it and helped as much as she could have, and in the end to find she'd still wanted him, he found himself more curious about the possibilities. He began to wonder if somehow the two worlds he straddled could find a way to co-exist, all he might need is the right woman, one made just for him like Dean had found for himself, even if he never admitted it.

Stepping out of the bathroom he stood at the dresser sifting through his wallet and going over what everyone liked in their coffee as well as for breakfast. Coffee black for Dean, cream only for Laura, and cream and sugar for himself, Cinnamon apple muffin or danish for Dean, bran muffin for Laura and blueberry for himself. _Got it… Good thing they don't get sick of the same stuff…_he thought and scratched his head taking a look at the dresser. _Wait a minute… that's not right…my bag… Dean's bag… oh that's right hers is on the…I thought it was on the floor…_he looked back, then between the bed and the wall and finally back in the bathroom before bothering to look at the bed. Dean was curled on his side, the blankets up to his ear. Unceremoniously Sam grabbed the edge of the blanket and pulled it down finding his big brother curled around a pillow.

"Hmm? Sammy what're you doing?" he muttered grasping at the air for the blanket with one hand while the other squeezed the pillow he was curled around and his eyes cracked open.

"What's goin' on?"

"She's gone…" Sam breathed unable to believe those words were coming out of his mouth.

"Laura's gone…" he reiterated as his big brother woke fully and took in the situation.

Sam's eyes scanned the room and fell on the notepad between the beds. He lurched for it and scanned the page then handed it to Dean who was already on his feet beside him.

"Guys,

Something is very wrong, I need to find out what it is before I wind up

putting either of you in harm's way…As soon as I get a new cell phone I'll

call and let you know what I find out, I promise… I'm not running, whining

or feeling sorry for myself… but I am scared and whatever's happening

is dangerous… for the time being, you're both safer without me around…trust

me please… I'll call you later, I promise.

Love you both!

Laura."

"Oh that's a load 'o b.s.!" Dean snarled grabbing his pants and jumping into them quickly while he looked at Sam who was already packing.

"What?" Sam asked.

Dean shrugged, his face crumpled in confusion and a dire need for caffeine, he opened his mouth and shut it quickly, "I don't get it…"

"Well, maybe she thought of something, or thought of a lead or something…she said she'll call Dean, she promised… has she broken a promise to you?" Sam asked, honestly wondering.

Dean shook his head, "No…no she hasn't," he realized knowing he'd not only remember it if she had, but he wouldn't be able to trust her like he did either.

"Then she'll call… do we still go to Bobby's?" Sam asked suddenly realizing they had no idea where she was heading or what they were supposed to do while they waited.

"Hell yeah…." Dean nodded, "We treat this like any other case Sam…Besides, I wanna talk to that son of a bitch and make sure he's not the one jerking her torque!"

Sam grinned, "Dude that sounds sooo wrong…"

Dean nodded, "Yeah it does. Alright… coffee, breakfast and Bobby's in that order."

--

Laura shook her head, she couldn't get the image of her own hand pressing the blade of one of her knives into Dean's throat. She was honestly amazed that it had only left a red mark and not drawn blood, she kept her knives sharp. She chalked it up to the something deep inside that had screamed for her to 'snap out of it'… _So Cher!_ before it was too late. Even as she thought about it her hands shook, not meager trembles but the kind of shock-shaking that usually comes when you've watched someone die horribly, like cut in half by a train or something. _I almost killed him… I could have killed him… I wouldn't have, somehow I would've stopped myself… yeah I did but by how much? My God if I ever did anything to hurt him I'd kill myself…there's no way I could live with myself that's for sure…he's so gentle… people don't understand that… not even his family knows his heart…he won't let them see it… but he let me in, he showed me everything he's never been able to show anyone, his hopes, fears and dreams… as trite as the trilogy sounds… sometimes trite is right…men like that just don't come along in this day and age…heh not that I'd know…the last time I had a date was what? 1907? Except for Dean that is…he understands and he accepts…I love him so much it hurts… ahhh…_she smiled and sighed as she drove due West, _That's the kind of pain I'd be happy to live with until the day I die…hunting side by side by side…at least 'till Sammy decides to go be with Sarah…then it would just be side by side… until the day we died…ackh! Frakkin' romantic…_ She shrugged internally and knew it was true, but it was a side she didn't like others to see.

As the sun embraced her from behind on her journey she thought about what she was about to do, what she needed to do. She needed access to the veiled realms, she needed access to the threads of the universe, most importantly the threads to her patron deity and the only way she could access those threads without alerting any other beings on the same plane as him, was by utilizing the natural resources at her disposal, that meant using places called vortices, or nexuses. Geographic places where energies coalesced and swirled and could be consciously tapped by the initiated, subconsciously by the uninitiated which could and did occasionally lead to ruination. It was actually her beloved Dean who reminded her of their existence and set the seed in her mind to growing. In his arms she'd remembered his tale of the summer of '92 and all the tribulations he'd endured because his father wanted nothing more than to protect him from an ancient leech-like species.

If her patron deity wasn't helping her, perhaps it was more that he couldn't, but in some way, already had by giving her the tools she needed to discover what in her little evil hunting world had gone so horribly wrong, all she need do was to put the pieces together and use the information she had to discover the crux of the mystery at hand. Once she knew the mystery, and its origin… she could act appropriately. The sad thing was that there were so few uncorrupted vortices left in the world that she would have to use what was available, and that meant Wounded Knee, in South Dakota and the site of an historical obscenity.

--

She pulled up and parked less than three feet from the front door of the small pre-fab house and dodged around the car as the door opened.

Her face lit up as Joe Red Bird stepped down onto the first step and smiled at her.

"Joe…" she sighed stepping up and wrapping his bent body into her arms.

He patted her cheek and shook his head then pointed at a large wooden 'T' in the yard, just one end of what was once a clothesline post. "The spirits told me you were coming," he nodded.

Laura followed his finger and saw three blackbirds sitting expectantly on the wooden brace. She nodded comforted by the omen. She was in the right place.

Hugging him tight she pressed her lips to his cheek then helped him down the last two steps and into the car, "The bullets you made for the boys work… thank you… I can't imagine what a toll that must've taken on you to make them…"

He waved her off and strapped himself into the seat.

"Just doing my little part in the fight against evil," he grinned and his eyes fell onto a box of Swisher Sweets sticking out of the dash. He slid them into his pocket and looked at Laura. "You remembered…" he smiled patting his pocket, "So… The Knee huh?" he asked.

"Yeah…I need to take a Spirit Walk…" she nodded and pulled a u-turn back onto the main road that would take them to the memorial.

"The balance is at war around you… one side wants you dead, the other doesn't..." he shook his head and frowned, troubled.

"What'd you see Joe?" she asked.

"Owls and Ravens in the day… it's not the natural order…" he sighed.

Laura felt her skin prickle with gooseflesh. The Ravens, Crows and Blackbirds were messengers of the Warrior Goddess and through her Cernunnos. Owls were nocturnal and harbingers of Death.

"If you spirit walk at The Knee you will enter the realm in a place of tragedy… it could get you killed in the end," he explained.

Laura nodded, "There isn't much choice, I have to find out what's happening and stop it… this can't be allowed to continue."

"You have an idea of what's going on don't you?" he asked.

Laura nodded, "Yeah I do…and if I'm right there's one ancient Bitch who's in need of a serious smack-down… taking her petty grievances out on innocent people on MY watch! Ah nah…not happening!" she ground out through clenched teeth, "…and she put MY man in jeopardy… no way…"

Joe smiled and nodded, "Keep that fire going in your belly and you may stand a chance," he admonished as she bypassed the chain link fence that enclosed the memorial marker to those who'd been hunted off their own lands, crushed by a plague of invaders from the other side of the world, and continued on to Porcupine Butte.

Back at the memorial proper, atop that gently rolling hill a late model Cadillac with a familiar face in the drivers' seat scowling furiously came to a slow stop while above the car an owl circled and in the distance a raven watched.

She could feel the hairs on her arms stand up and had the creepy sensation that someone was watching her as she parked and went to the passenger side of the car, "Joe…" she said softly while helping him out, "If anything happens and I don't make it back, call Dean for me…I promised I'd call him as soon as I got a new cell phone but nothing was open yet and I got here first," she explained.

"I will," Joe nodded cupping her cheek in his chamois soft hand, "if you don't come back I'll tell him your thoughts were of him…" he assured as she nodded, kissed his cheek and brought out a folding chair for him and the few accoutrements she would need. _Elemental magik… so simple… so powerful…_ she huffed and pressed her small silver tray flatly into the grass then filled it with water. Once that was done she sat on her heels and using the point of the knife she'd found herself holding at Dean's throat, sliced the tip of her finger allowing the blood to drip into the tray while her lips moved in a silent Celtic incantation. _"Oh God…"_ she groaned inside as her consciousness slipped from its earthly house and began to pass through realms and ages.

--

Sam's hands slammed against the dashboard of the Impala startling Dean who looked at him curiously and nearly lost control of the car when he saw clear glassy black eyes staring out of his baby brothers' face at him.

"Sam!" he barked, _Why when I'm driving! _he worked the steering wheel as the car fishtailed before he was able to bring it to the shoulder of the two lane highway. "Sam!"

--

tbc…

Well... managed to get this up before vacation... leaving this morning so...

I hope some of you read this before I get back, I'd love to get

what you're thinking…

Please and thank you!

Means so much!

sifi


	11. Chapter 11

I missed you guys! and hope I didn't lose it on vacation... I'll thread my tale on the board... but for now... please enjoy... I'm almost done with 12.

Wounds – chpt 11 – s.n. fic.

by: sifi.

--

Laura looked around at the beautiful countryside surrounding her. It was South Dakota but it seemed the grandeur was squared. The hills in the distance seemed to sing to her, drawing her toward them. An avian scream sounded in the air from behind, and she turned just in time to see an enormous screech owl diving straight for her. She ducked and moved to cover her head with her arms when from her right a great raven flew straight into the owl, its talons extended as it gripped the owl's wing and flapped hard, flicking its legs back and dropping the owl off its prior course.

She straightened up and watched the bird circle overhead until the owl rose back into the sky and turned toward the hills. "Thanks," she nodded and cocked her head to the side as a sound of rhythmic thunder seemed to roll through the earth while human screams of terror and sorrow rent the quiet. Next came the sporadic 'pop'ing of weapons fire and she knew what was coming. She turned toward the sounds and stood still, letting the spirits of the massacred pass through her as they would, each one that touched her brought with it a particular flavor of pain and fear that it was very unlikely she would live to remember. _Didn't I see this in a movie once?_ she thought as a cadre of blue suited white soldiers approached the rise, their flag flying in the breeze and their gun-barrels smoking from the powder. _Wonder how hot those barrels are?_ a random thought sped through her head as she breathed and waited for the soldiers to pass her by so she could continue her journey. A 'crack' of broken air to her right drew her attention, heat spread over her abdomen and she didn't understand. _That's not supposed to happen…_ she thought, feeling just a little unnerved as her hand touched her side and came away covered in blood, _No! I have something to do! _she wanted to cry out and thought perhaps she might have because in response she looked up where a half a dozen ravens and crows circled this tragedy ridden field, _"Lay down! Now!"_ she heard in her head and let herself fall to the ground just as another crack sounded and she heard a ball whistle through the area her body had just occupied. _"Stay down…"_ the voice urged until all the horrible, bloody history of this place had passed and a raven landed on the ground before her. It clicked its beak against her head until she turned and met its gleaming coffee colored eye and nodded. The bird took wing once more and she pushed herself to her feet, her hand on her right side as she allowed the siren song of the hills to guide her to her appointment.

--

In the chair she had provided for him Joe Red Bird sat and waited. When she left her body he'd straightened her out and laid her flat on her back, and when blood began to flow from her right side he bandaged the wound closed as best as he could.

And once again, he waited.

--

Dean fumbled through his jacket pockets and drew his gun out, his hand shaking furiously as he eyed whatever was inside his younger brother looking out.

Sam's face smiled gently and his hand wrapped around the barrel while a layered voice both his and not, spoke aloud, "You've no need of your weapons with me young Winchester…" he said not unkindly and tilted Sam's head to the side.

Sunlight shone through his eyes and Dean realized they were not the opaque black within black he associated with demonic possession. These eyes were dark, nearly black, but actually the color of coffee once the light shone through them. He could see the striations of deepest brown within them as well as a dark gray outer ring and he saw that they shone with benevolent intelligence. They were crows eyes.

"Cernunnos…" he breathed and felt his entire body seem to loosen while his nerves tingled.

Sam's head nodded once and his hand reached out to Dean's chest, coming up from beneath the brass pendant he wore. He set it to rest with barely a glance and smiled in a way Dean found he could not even begin to decipher, "You're a difficult human to get in touch with…Your love will die in a place the humans call Wounded Knee…"

"Wh…? Wounded Knee?...Wha?...No," Dean stuttered feeling as if the very breath had been stolen from his body. His mind swam and his heart thundered. He shook his head and wrapped his fists into Sam's jacket, "No! Fix it! I've seen you do it before… " he ordered into Sam's face.

"I can't… I'm not here…" the voices told him.

"No! You son of a bitch! Fix it!" he yelled while shaking Sam who blinked hard a couple of times and wrapped his hands around Dean's.

"Dean!… quit shakin' me! He's gone…" Sam barked wondering when the last time was that he'd felt quite this nauseous. He looked at his big brother, his usually enigmatic eyes wide with horrible belief, his hands were shaking and he couldn't seem to let go of Sam's jacket.

"No… bring him back! Make him fix this!" he ordered as if Sam could do those very things.

Sam grabbed Dean's chin and forced him to meet his eyes with one hand and thinking quickly used the other to put the Impala in park, shut off the ignition and grab the keys.

"Dean… trade places I'm driving… you'll either get us killed or arrested," Sam swallowed hard and slid out the door jogging quickly around the car and literally pushing his still stunned older brother into the passenger seat.

As Sam gunned the engine and pulled Metallicar back onto the highway, their destination and oddly enough a route set firmly in his mind, Dean sat in the passenger seat wondering what had just happened and unable to believe what he'd heard. _Your love will die in a place the humans call Wounded Knee… No… that's not possible… she traveled halfway across the country with a silver spike sticking in her gut and that didn't kill her… she's faced gargoyles, demons, ghosts, poltergeists… everything we've faced and probably more because of your patronage and none of it's killed her! You can't let her die you son of a bitch! She's doing this for you! She's fighting this fight because…_ his mind stopped for a second while his body took a breath, _because it needs to be fought, but still! She's yours! No, she's mine! I don't care if she gave her allegiance to you she's MINE you bastard… just like Sammy's MINE! So is she! You can't take her away from me…God Why did she leave us? Me? We, I could have protected her… maybe… Hurry Sammy… put the pedal to the metal little brother… get us there… God what if she's dead already? _

--

"Find me here… and speak to me… I want to feel you… I need to hear you… You are the light that's leading me… to the place… where I find peace…again…" Laura sang softly, focusing her energy on forward motion and her mind on whatever it was going to take to save any innocents out there that this bitch was going to sacrifice for her little vendetta.

She hadn't been certain who it was behind these horrific events that had been brought into the mortal world, she hadn't been certain which of the hundreds in the pantheon of deities might want to mess with Cernunnos but it seemed there were certain signs she'd be hard put to deny, though several could apply to many, only all could be applied to one. She just had to prove herself right. This being the case she sighed around the song she couldn't get out of her head and focused on that mental picture that brought her so much peace. The morning she'd left him in Oregon, that 'ooh…a surprise in my head' smile he'd been wearing as she'd dressed.

"You are the strength… that keeps me walking… You are the hope… that keeps me trusting… You are the life… to my soul… You are my purpose… You're everything… And how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you? Would you tell me… how could it be any better than this?"

Her feet tangled and she caught herself, her body numb beyond protesting. It seemed that in the ethereal realm perhaps distance wasn't quite what her body was accustomed to, and though she was in fair athletic shape… then again, it may have been the led ball in her side that was making it such a hard trek.

_I don't even have any weapons…heh… oh well… maybe a heartfelt plea will get the bitch to change her mind and stop this before it gets out of hand… yeah… and I got a better chance of getting Dean to do a striptease to Pour Some Sugar On Me… than that happening!…_ she shook her head and continued the play loop of the chorus as she walked wondering when exactly the base of the hills was going to reach her feet.

--

The body it wore was tiring far more quickly than it had anticipated. Still, it walked the distance over the rolling plain from the chain-link fence at the Memorial proper to where the emissary and her "Guardian" were actually situated, deep in the heart of the site of the massacre, at the epicenter of the vortex itself. If it tried to, it could watch her progress toward the hills in the as they lay in the veiled realms, as well as grin at the site of her body bleeding in the grass, giving back to the earth as she'd once willingly given her blood in service to Cernunnos at a small pond in Arkansas.

_Why he would betray me? We are part of the same circle he and I yet he would seek to undo my works no matter how just the vengeance be? That he would dare to shelter one he himself marked for all eternity? To take a just vengeance from my hand! Unforgiveable!_ it thought, _And this one… a fitting end, bereft of love and family both… whatever shall be done, it will be by my hand and the soul shall not be pardoned! _it thought and stood still, surprised by the speed of the old man who rose and leveled a pistol at its hosts heart.

"I know what you're here to do… I won't let you…" Joe cocked the pistol, this was no antique Colt or other civil war surplus six shooter as one might suspect, but it was a fully automatic .9mm loaded with his special bullets.

The face before him smiled and began to laugh.

--

Laura raised her eyes up to the hills and saw she'd covered just half again the distance she had to go. In the back of her mind she whimpered wondering why the distance was so great, where was she really going? Was she headed to meet her patron, find some answers, warmth and comfort as the siren of the hills promised or was she really headed into enemy territory. For the problems plaguing her for the last month alone she should've seen this possibility, _But how could I have? All those doubts, all those recriminations, I've never had that kind of negativity before! Yeah well I'd never survived a wounding like that either then had to deal with the repercussions from it… gives me a whole new respect for surgical patients I'll say that for sure…now I understand why they'd get so… surly sometimes…course I'm betting most of them didn't have the horrible nightmares of persecution and stuff either… yeah that should've been a clue right there, but I guess I just couldn't see it… man it was insidious…perfectly done I'll say that much, but then again… that would be what it does… the thing I don't understand is Why? Why did it do this? Motive… hello?_ she shook her head, _I suppose there won't be any harm in asking…_ and with that thought she began to smile and her pace seemed to quicken.

--

She paid attention to the wildlife in the area as the hills finally did seem to stretch out their fingers toward her feet. She saw fewer crows and did manage to spy an owl, perhaps the same one that had been thwarted earlier, circling lazily overhead. From what she understood, this was not normal behavior for owls. _Yeah, but where to go within?_ she asked herself with the realization that the stony stronghold was filled with crags and hidey holes, and possibly caves. She had an idea of what she was looking for, it would either be a small grotto within a cave or one through a small hidden opening. That's how legends and lore spoke of the entrance to her 'Lair'. The guiding siren song was still there if she listened carefully but its lulling, drowsy-ing effect was dampened by the conflict Laura was experiencing. She could feel her spine tingling, her body wanted to turn and run as far and fast as possible. She didn't want to be here going up against, possibly THE Goddess of Vengeance, _I'm only a human being, how can I go up against a Goddess? Especially one who's already got it in for me?_ then her heart would beat and she'd see the man she loved in her head, _Because I could never live in peace if I run away, I couldn't ever allow myself to be with him…God what a terrible horrible revenge, how cruel! and I don't even know why! I'd rather die than to never see him, or feel him with me again, or hear him chuckle… God I hate being so weak! Why did you make me love you Dean? _she wondered while trying to pin down the exact moment he slid her heart in to his pocket for all time.

He'd been no more than a fully aware slice of his own consciousness residing temporarily in her mind after she'd dipped into him in the ICU. She'd gone home after her shift with that slice of him in her head and begun to research the paranormal on the internet. Morgan had sensed him there, he'd heard Laura talking to the slice of Winchester in her head and he'd become antagonistic, much more so than usual. Dean, not really realizing at the time that he wasn't quite, 'all there', had made a move to 'talk' to Morgan and get him to lay off. _Yeah, it was probably that moment right there…and that boyish enthusiasm when he realized I was going to get his stuff out of the car…_Then an image of him on the gurney, fighting the EMT's and the rest of the staff as they brought him into her ER, struggling despite his grievous wounds to try and find his baby brother, how his eyes had pleaded with her, how open with his fear he'd been with just a look, _No, that's when I fell in love with him. A literal case of love at first sight… man I'm so wonderfully pathetic…_and she smiled and turned her body sideways to squeeze between two rock walls and enter the hill.

Passing that rock wall 'doorway' moisture in the air caressed her face, carrying with it a mixed scent of living wet and decaying green things. It wasn't necessarily unpleasant, but it told her everything she needed to know. She'd passed finally through the realm and was in the Goddess' grotto. The air alone told her, bringing with it memories of her first life, the one that had led interminable centuries later to the destiny she embraced with verve.

The grotto was everything she expected it to be, most likely because she expected it to be the way it was… a black shimmering pond of water surrounded by rushes and dark woods twisted and warped through vengeful energies. Eyes peered at her from those black shadows and though she could not see them, that she could feel them was enough. Lights moved overhead, shadows and star maps churning in the heavens as time and place began then ended, folding in and around on itself before stretching back out into the natural order of things.

"Aine! or are you going by Morrigan?" she asked, her voice resonating with a rush of warriors ferocity. "Why have you done these things?" she asked, wandering around the pond and trying to remember everything she could about Morrigan, or as she was later named through lore and legend, Morgause, and later mortalized by the name Morgan LaFey in Arthurian Legend. _Uhm.. spiteful chick, duplicitous, bore a child by her own brother…eeew! and tried to steal Arthur's 'throne' from him through Mordred… yeah, I really need to get my head into some historical texts once in a while instead of waiting for the movies to come out… Okay shut out the Arthurian Legend, that's all just based on a Roman General stationed in the aisles anyway… Man I wish I remembered that far back! Or maybe I don't… might mean I'd be as crazy as Morgan…Okay… gotta think about what I know about Morrigan… she had a stone, that she didn't want anyone else to sit on and if they did she'd drive 'em crazy… oh great…Okay, no sitting for me… sheesh… that's helpful…_she tried to sort her thoughts but found them a mad dervish virtually out of control.

Above her the heavens lightened to steel gray and shadows appeared to take on ominous shape if not full form among the twisted flora. In the branches eyes glowed, some gold, some brown, even some smoky blue, and she could swear the very trees themselves were watching her, and though she wasn't certain, and really had no desire to get any closer to find out, she was certain that one of the trees itself had glowing firey orange eyes and was somehow imbued with intelligence.

She was reminded of the two hobbits following Golem across the ancient boggy battlefield in the lovingly crafted movies based on the Tolkein books. She also felt the same kind of shivering and unease that she imagined they must've felt. She was out of her element and she knew it, but still she had to forge ahead and hope to accomplish her mission, stop the senseless slaughter of the innocents by this particular pair of extra hands, and ensure that her love was as protected as possible, considering the path he'd chosen for his life.

--

tbc

Please R&R, need to know, did I lose it on vacation?

Thanks sifi


	12. Chapter 12

Wounds – chpt 12. – s.n. fic.

By: sifi.

--

"Alright Sam… whatever it is you've been holding back, I want to know and I want to know now…" Dean switched to soldier mode. There was an innocent life on the line and he was going to do everything he possibly could to keep from losing it.

Sam glanced at him from the drivers seat, almost, but not quite able to pull off his '_I don't know what you're talking about…'_ face.

"Don't even try it, back in the room, when she had that nightmare? The paper at the doctor's office and the article in it… whatever your research turned up after the convenience store thing… when I asked you what you turned up? I want every detail, everything…you understand me?" he pressed so seriously that Sam had no choice but to understand. He even went so far as to turn off the stereo.

Sam took a deep breath and huffed it out hard keeping his eyes straight ahead and his speed hovering between 75 and 80 miles per hour glad he was driving and had a reason not to look at his big brother as he began to tell him everything he'd found.

"Oh man… what?" Dean asked recognizing the look on Sam's face immediately.

"It was after the last surgery… not this last one but the third one… seemed there was an incident in the recovery room… one of the nurses went to give her some medication and she… attacked her. The nurse was fine but Laura was putting up a fight… she swore up and down that the woman was possessed and trying to kill her…" even in the periphery of his vision he could see Dean wince though he held his tongue for the moment. "They ordered a psych evaluation on her and eventually chalked it up to a bad reaction to the medication... thankfully, but not until after they'd run some pretty hefty tests..."

"What like inkblots and word association and stuff? Should've been a cake walk for her," Dean finally interjected and raised his finger, "Aaand the bitch probably _was_ possessed! Not that any of us could tell that to anyone…" he admitted.

"Exactly," Sam nodded, "…well some of the tests were of the Rorschach variety but they also did EEG's, a contrast MRI and finally a PET scan, and I guess what they found was interesting enough to… well… spark their interest."

"What'd they find?" Dean asked apprehensively.

"Nothing bad… just certain areas of her brain, areas that are dormant in folks like us, are wide awake and kind of waving at the world in hers…" Sam said factually.

"That's my girl…" Dean smiled proudly.

Sam nodded flashing an easy smile of his own, "We can figure it's probably a result of whatever she had to go through to be able to do some of the things she does for Cernunnos… or it could be part of the whole 'dipping' thing she does or it could just be that those areas are active because of the whole past life thing… so you see the problem?" he asked.

Dean nodded frowning, "Yeah, we… well _she_ can't tell anyone about any of those things cause they'll think she's insane and since they were already looking for organic causes for the quote-unquote hallucination and insistence that the nurse was possessed… the last thing she could do was let herself make it worse... man… she must've been scared as hell…"

Sam nodded his agreement, "…but it does explain the nightmare about us committing her…" he opened another door.

"But?" Dean asked expectantly.

"But in between the third and this final surgery… I found three more cases in which pregnant women were attacked, she only managed to save one of them, then came the woman on the West side who gave the description of her to the police this time."

"The one with the ex-husband that wound up beating her up?" Dean asked snarling a bit.

"Yeah… that's the one…" Sam opened his mouth and closed it again. _It's up to her… it's not my place…but he's my brother… and he loves her… no matter what he says or doesn't say…if he finds out, and finds out I knew and didn't tell him… but if she dies he'll never have to know and he can keep it all clean and shiny inside… spare him the pain or tell him the truth? No contest._ "Yeah, the son of a bitch that beat the crap out of her…" he finished and focused completely on the road.

"What else?" Dean asked.

"What else what?" Sam asked feeling the muscles of his neck tighten horribly.

"What else did you dig up? Come on Sam you're Geek Boy! Professor Peabody! What'd you get about what or who might have a vendetta against Cernunnos? I mean this crap seems to be pretty well directed at him through her… she's his emissary, whatever it is has been attacking pregnant women…" Dean's breath caught halfway in his throat and he looked at Sam, his eyes wide, every possible emotion ranging from abject terror to the potential for the purest joy wide open for the world to see, "Oh God Sammy… don't tell me…she was… is… was…" he stammered.

"What?...What?" Sam asked daring a glance at his older brother and completely taken aback by the clarity of his expression. All Sam could see was hope, "Dude what!" he demanded wondering what kind of leap his big brothers' brain had made.

"Don't tell me she's pregnant…"

"Who?" Sam asked completely baffled.

Dean smacked his arm painfully, "Laura!"

"What? No! Not that's in any of her medical records anyway…" Sam shook his head wondering how Dean had made such a jump then after a moment's thought saw how he could've connected the dots that way. He looked over and saw his brother's expression fall flat before he could catch the mask and put it back on, "No… man… it's not in any of her records as of this last surgery so… sorry…" he said more softly this time and felt his heart skip a beat, _Wow, I think he really wanted her to be pregnant… sorry Dean… If it's what you want,… now that's something I never thought I'd say or think… I'm sorry your girl's NOT pregnant…wow, that's just weird…I never realized… well it makes sense… someone who's not going to leave him… someone he can have till death do they part… well he didn't say marriage… he might just want a kid…another young Winchester to teach to hunt evil? Or to build the family that that son of a bitch stole from you Dean? Which is it? Or is it both? Man I can't think about this… not right now, so what were we talking about? _

"…well the Celts had just a few deities…" Sam began,

"Probably more like a few hundred," Dean scoffed with just a little less heart in his voice, _Wow… that was cool for a few seconds there…my looks, both our brains…yeah, that could be pretty darn cool… ack…the world's probably not ready for another Winchester … could'a been really neat… did I just think 'neat'? Yeah, alright…FOCUS! You'll never get a chance if she dies! Right! _he acknowledged and put all his energy into focusing on what Sam was saying.

"…so even though it has to be a lesser deity than him… it still has to be one pretty high up in the pantheon to harness or exhibit that kind of power…"

"Which narrows it down to roughly how many? And maybe even more importantly… how do we find and help her fight a deity?" Dean asked.

Sam shook his head, "I don't know… maybe we can pick up Joe Red Bird or something, maybe he'll know how to help…"

Dean nodded, "Okay… good plan college boy…"

"Not Geek Boy?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head, "Nahp… Geek Boy would've had a top five list at least… and Professor Peabody might've even had a plan…"

Sam smiled and shook his head, happy to see his brother holding hard to hope and hoping himself that it wasn't going to break him in the end. "Top five? Cerridwen, Aine, Danu, Morrigan, although no one's really sure if Morrigan and Aine are one and the same or not, Bodh…that's four… maybe five… and if I remember correctly there's a reason she's at Wounded Knee…what do you think exists at that particular area, actually about a mile East North East of the memorial?" he smirked when he saw Dean's look of satisfaction and 'thrill me' shrug. "I think there's a nexus there… it's dark energy but it's a perfect place to pierce the veil between worlds if you have the knowledge and ability to do it…" he finished.

Dean looked at him duly impressed, "And Joe Red Bird may have a means of helping us pass through the veil?" he surmised and smiled as his younger brother nodded affirmative, "Nice job Professor how long till we get there?" he asked.

"We've got about six behind us, so maybe an hour and a half, maybe two…"

Dean nodded, "Get us there Sam."

--

Laura walked carefully around the grotto, staying near the bank of the pond but not close enough to be drawn into the silken blackness of its surface, and maintaining enough distance from those Dark Forest of Oz-ish trees and whatever inhabitants they might be sequestering, to ensure that she didn't become somehow drawn or entrapped in there either. _Yeah, somehow I think it's more along the lines of those damned freaky flying monkeys I'd come across in there rather than the cowardly lion…_ she joked with herself and continued looking for the fabled stone no one was supposed to sit on without incurring Morrigan's wrath. If that's what she had to do to draw the vengeful Goddess to her, then so be it.

"_You should go back child…there is nothing you can do and someone must maintain the balance..."_ that same voice that had told her to fall down and stay down until the Union soldiers had passed spoke within her head.

"Cernunnos?" she whispered and wheeled to her right, back the way she'd come, all her senses peaked and straining for any sign of trickery or her patron. She scanned the surrounding white rock wall looking for crags or tunnels or any kind of entrance. She recognized the one she'd entered the grotto through and felt as if the call had come from somewhere between that particular crag and where she currently stood, but she could see nothing. _Fine, I'll do it the old fashioned way…_she sighed to herself and felt a weight develop at the waistband of her jeans. Her hand found the weight and drew forth one of her daggers. _Hmm is this a good sign?... it IS mine...well, until I figure otherwise, I'll see it as a good sign._ She walked straight at the white cliff wall and pressed her palms to it and began moving toward the entryway. Her focus was so sharp in the task, literally at hand, that she couldn't help but miss the one tree with the fire orange eyes appear to turn, its trunk never moved yet something within its bole was keeping its eyes intently upon her.

_Talk to me! Come on, call to me again…_she pressed and tried somehow find a way to re-forge that connection between them. _Nothing… Damnit! _she thought then stopped for a moment and concentrated harder, _Well… it's not exactly, really nothing…_ as soon as she'd entered this realm her thoughts had become less cohesive, they swirled in small broken dervishes that felt like they were biting at the ankles of her 'mental' feet. _So there might be something there if I can get through the craziness? If I can just focus?_ she wondered.

Her fingers continued to caress the stone face of the hill, each nook and cranny investigated so far as it would allow until she finally found what she was looking for, a small bend, almost a dovetailed type of cut in the rock and beneath it, pressing into her fingertips was cool moist air.

"_Do not proceed! I beg you!" _the voice finally called again.

"Why?" she asked thinking, _Well that's a little like telling a kid not to touch a hot stove isn't it? _then received in answer, a simple statement.

"_I release you…"_ and behind those three words a sound not unlike nails on a chalkboard through an amplifier cranked up to max literally shook the ground beneath her.

Laura's eyes grew wide and she stalled in wonder, waiting for some tell-tale sign. She raised her hand to her neck and felt the torque still there, solid, heavy, comforting. She didn't feel any different inside, and ran her hands over her body, _…or outside… yep damn thing's still bleeding, but not bad anymore…so that's a plus… I think…_she thought, _Oh no you don't…_ before following her fingertips into the place of that cool air.

She wended around the dove tail and stopped short. She was in a small rock hewn chamber with two beings, two boulders and two owls. The owls were sitting one on either shoulder of the female present who sat on the smaller boulder, and the masculine entity, with his antlers and wooly legs, chained lengthwise and pulled taut backward over the larger boulder met her eyes and looked away before tears fell down his face.

She'd never really come face to literal face with Cernunnos before, whenever an image of him had come to her, his features were indistinguishable, hidden in shadow, only their curves and angles coupled with his antlers and wooly satyr's lower half assured her of his identity. It was a long held, ancient belief that to give too fine a representation of the face of a deity was to humanize it to the point where it could or would lose its power and so often, particularly in art, many ancient beings were represented with very generic facial features, rudimentary eyes, nose and mouth… it was the outer trappings, adornments and other defining characteristics which identified the being. With Cernunnos, typically it was the antlers, or sometimes just horns and the satyrs legs that gave his identity away. But as she saw for the first time the truest face of her patron that any mortal had ever seen she realized it struck a familiar chord in her and she smiled feeling warmth flood through her. She'd often seen a rudimentary countenance such as his swinging in darkness or in light above her as she worked beneath the man she loved, celebrating with him one of the joys of life.

Pulling her mind back to the present, Laura winced as she took in the full state of her patron. His belly and chest had been pecked and gouged down to bone in places and meat in others with tidbits of flesh hanging out of the larger holes in his abdomen. She grimaced catching his eyes and swallowed hard at the agony she saw there then shifted her gaze to the maroon haired Vengeance Goddess who sat upon her stone, barely bothering to glance at Laura as she inclined her head toward one of the owls. It flew from her shoulder and set to work pecking once again at the bound representative of fertility and rebirth.

Laura felt a growl of impotent fury roll up from her throat as she strode to the female, "What's your problem bitch!" she demanded and stopped short when the woman turned to face her full on. "YOU?" she barked and stepped back shaking her head, "Why? Why!"

Her body trembled as the woman rose from her stone and stood before Laura, her deep brown eyes penetrating deep into her brain. Laura couldn't believe her eyes, the face she found herself looking into, even if for only a moment, before the true face of Morrigan was revealed, was one she'd last seen in tears, cowering in the corner of a run down house on the West side of Chicago, being beaten by a gargantuan man with anger issues. The same woman who'd given her description to the police, the same woman who was six months pregnant with a baby that was to be of interest to Big Bad. _Oh man what's going on here?_ Laura thought feeling her confusion begin to spiral out of control, _I hate being confused… I really hate being confused… it makes me cranky…man I need info…well let's start with the basics_, "Why?" she breathed shaking her head.

--

tbc…

Please R&R I missed you guys so much I need your feedback!

(How am I not going to fic during the season?...I can't do it!)

thanks.

sifi.


	13. Chapter 13

Wounds chpt – 13 – s.n.fic.

by: sifi

**There is graphic violence in this chapter…I'm sorry…**

--

"You? You of all… dare to ask me why? His favorite…" she nodded toward Cernunnos, "…One of two mortals bound to be cursed for all eternity… one freed, and the other unleashed by a selfless act, fed by a selfless heart, you stole my vengeance by impressing him…"

"What?" Laura shook her head frowning, "I cast myself into servitude, learn to fight the good fight and get my ass kicked on a regular basis to buy the release of my brother's soul and you're pissed off about it?... isn't that a little petty? and isn't he…" she pitched her thumb over her shoulder at her patron, "…your boss?"

Morrigan tilted her head to the side, "You had joy…bliss…love…all things you should have been eternally denied… all things, had you been thrust into my hands once more as you should have been, you would never have known…"

"I wouldn't trade a nanosecond of it…" Laura literally sneered, "When I die I will have known all that you crave and can never have for yourself, is that it? I will have had it all and you can't stand it… well too freakin' bad bitch… get over yourself…"

On his rock Cernunnos grinned and groaned, an odd mix of sound and sight as the owl picked chunks of intestine out of his body and gobbled it down.

"You stole my vengeance…" she reiterated as though Laura should know exactly what she was talking about and, she thought she did, but she really wasn't sure after all.

_Yeah, cause you know deities… couldn't give a straight answer if the world tilted the opposite way…_ she sighed internally.

Laura couldn't have said what had possessed her to goad this creature on, but whether it was blatant stupidity or false bravado, she couldn't keep her mouth shut, and she had no idea how that would effect her in the end. _Doesn't really matter though, if she's doing this to him just for buying my servitude and freeing Morgan… but there's got to be something else, there has to be more for this kind of punishment… boy I better get some answers before I wind up on a rock next to him… _A slow smile spread over her mouth as she turned and looked at the impassive face before her.

"So… lemme ask you this? You're the Goddess of Vengeance right? You like irony right?… are you sure you're not just a little off your game here? Cause you know this whole…" she motioned to Cernunnos and his position and predicament, "… setup smacks of Hera and Prometheus after their little tiff… you can tell me…you're running a little dry these days aren't you?" she pressed her lips together and nodded knowingly.

Morrigan leaned in close, her features hard and blank though her eyes were nearly amber now with fury as she cocked half a sinister smile, "Physical pain is enough for men… I find revenge against women to be a little more challenging…" she passed her hand near Laura's head, almost in a stroking type of gesture before her smile grew and her mouth came closer to Laura's ear, "I feel your questions… I feel them storming within you… the desire for knowledge…" she whispered.

Laura's hand flicked out, her throwing knife secure between two fingers as she swiped it across the Goddess's throat and felt herself once more bathed in hot blood from someone else's body. The owl perched on Cernunnos' chest stopped its feast and looked at the two women who stood toe to toe, and the one that remained on Morrigan's shoulder blinked lazily.

Morrigan straightened up, her 'flesh' mending before Laura's eyes before she chucked her under the chin with a smile, "Play nice little mortal…I have answers for you…"

_I am so screwed…_she thought swallowing hard and feeling rather firmly rooted to the spot as Morrigan's hands came to the sides of her head, their eyes met and held and her mouth came down…

--

Halfway between the Wounded Knee Memorial, where the Impala raced past the empty Caddy, and Porcupine Butte; above the comforting sound of Metallicar's chop, and the roar of her ever faithful heart a sound unlike anything they'd ever heard rolled through the land, its effect a cascade of dread through everything that lived.

Sam and Dean shuddered so hard Sam's foot slammed down on the accelerator for a moment and the car shot forward.

"Oh…cra…ap…" Dean's teeth chattered in his head as a waterfall of shivers bent his spine in waves and he looked at Sam, who's hands were wrapped so tightly around the steering wheel it seemed to be bowing.

"Ye..yeah…" he also stuttered.

"There!" Dean called as the feeling passed and his eyes fell on three growing specs in the distance near Laura's car.

One of those specs was Laura, he could discern that much. It was she who'd unleashed the cry, her torso moving in a way that reminded him of their father being evacuated by Big Bad after Sam shot him but refused to kill him, before she too fell back with a sense of finality he could feel from there.

"Sam!" Dean urged.

"Mmm…" Sam nodded curtly as they drew closer to the spot.

"Who's the other one?" Dean asked as Sam misjudged the time needed to stop in the grass and sent the Impala skidding past the three inert people by yards. He worked the wheel with all the proficiency they'd both been taught and turned into the spin so that when they came to rest she was pointed in the direction they'd come from.

They leaped from the car, Dean making a bee line for Laura while Sam checked on Joe RedBird first, then closed his sightless and bloody eyes and moved to check on the pregnant black woman that lay, also dead on the grass, her eyes staring sightlessly thanks to the bullet hole in her forehead. _I recognize her… where do I know her from? _Sam thought and moved swiftly to his brothers' side.

"She alive?" Sam asked.

Dean nodded, barely breathing while he kept his fingers on her throat, "I can't get a count… her heart's going crazy Sam…" he said softly and looked at his baby brother with desperation. "What do I do?"

Sam shook his head listening to the landslide of syncopation that was her breathing and wondered if there was anything they _could_ do. "Joe's dead… so's the woman…" it dawned on him then, where he'd seen her before; in Rockford at the motel, and her picture had been in the Tribune article, she was the woman Laura saved, the one who'd given the description of her to the police, the one who's ex-husband had not only beaten her savagely, but also raped her, as he'd found out when he was trying to find out all he could, _Oh God…what if she dies?_ he felt his stomach get queasy all over again as Cernunnos' words rang in his head with undeniable finality. She was going to die, he knew it, he could feel it in the air around them and somehow, he knew Dean could too and it was trying to crush him.

--

"Morrigan! Noooo!" Cernunnos cried straining against his chains as his lover's mouth pressed to Laura's. His head fell back against the boulder, his body barely registering the pain of her owl pecking at him as tears slid down his face. What he'd seen unfold so many times before, with a kiss from the Goddess of Vengeance was like a train wreck. Every time he saw her do it he couldn't help but watch the horror unfold as the victim fell to ruination at their own hand, usually to the point where the madness would lead them to literally tear themselves apart. He recalled watching in horror the first time she'd done it to Laura's baby brother, before he'd shown mercy on the poor lad and given him another chance at living. Unfortunately, through centuries of intermittent madness, the boy had come to enjoy it.

--

Laura's hands came up, one on the Goddess's forehead and the other on her chest and pushed her away with everything she had, but the damage had been done. The history unfolding in her mind, the atrocities Morrigan had perpetrated through the ages, but the worst were those that involved her brother. She saw the first time Morrigan got her mitts on him, she watched her brother fall to the ground writhing in some fiery agony. He clutched his head screaming, his nails raking his head and face over and over again until the skin began shred under them, hair and scalp following quickly once the skin was broken.

She watched Morrigan watch his torment smiling loosely, those owls ever present upon her shoulders until there was enough flesh on the ground for them to eat. His hands tore at the manifestation of his clothes until none remained and he lay cold and burning and naked on the stone rending himself to pieces and occasionally even calling out for his big sister to help him.

"Stop this… God stop this! You Sick Bitch!" she whispered desperately, breaking out of her trance of disbelief and lurching to her brothers' side, her hands trying to reach back through time to undo somehow what had long ago been accomplished. It was the cries for her to help him, to do something to stop what was happening somehow, that cut her deepest. They were cries she'd never heard, this was a torment she'd never experienced and Morgan had never apparently recalled.

Realizing she could do nothing to help her brother she rose to her height, scant though it may be to the stature of the Goddess and crossed the cave, her eyes flint sharp as she approached the maroon haired woman-thing and made to grab her, only to find her hand passing through the image of the past. Furious, she turned and watched the woman approach her fallen brother.

Her eyebrows furrowed and her face twisted in horror as she realized he'd found and begun to mutilate his manhood. A shiver shook her to the core, when at the touch of his own hand on himself, his nails dug into that sensitive flesh at its root and started to saw through it and he began laughing through his cries and pleas.

"Oh God…" Laura gasped falling to her knees and burying her face in her hands. She felt her head snap back and her arms were forced to her sides as she watched the Vengeance Goddess kneel at Morgan's side, take his hands from himself and touch him. His nearly ruined masculinity sprang to life and despite his protestations she lifted her skirts to straddle him, impailing herself on the tattered flesh of his rod.

Laura watched him try to shrink from her, to move away and pull himself from her but her hands were talons buried in his shoulders, her fingers literally melded into his flesh as she raised his torso and pressed her mouth to his again while her body ground hard atop him.

"Please…no more…" Laura breathed feeling the tears dripping from her chin. Her breathing came short and hard in her lungs and her heart hammered sporadically when she saw Morgan's arms come around the Goddess, clutch her to him in response and turn her onto her back so he could have his full measure.

"No…" she sobbed and felt her head released from whatever had been gripping it. Still on her knees she crumpled over unable to stop the images she'd just seen from replaying in her mind over and over again.

--

tbc: sorry so short.

Please R&R… this one was kind of… intense…to write.

Need to know… you know…

Thanks.

sifi.


	14. Chapter 14

Wounds – chpt 14 – s.n. fic.

by: sifi.

Before I get going here I want to credit the lyrics of the song I've been using – Everything by Lifehouse -

--

Sam looked at his brother wondering what was going to happen to him when all was said and done. Dean was on his knees, his arms wrapped around Laura who he held tight against his chest with one arm, his other hand remained at her neck feeling for some change in her pulse. His eyes were closed and his head was bowed over her shoulder, his mouth at her ear working quietly while he rocked her.

They'd only been there for a few minutes but Sam was more than a little unnerved by Dean's behavior. It took a moment for him to recognize the words that Dean was whispering melodically into her ear, and then another moment to really understand them. A gentle breeze began to stir, stroking his overlong hair out of his eyes and he wondered if anything they could do, would be of any help, particularly without Joe Red Bird to help them tap into the energies of the place.

--

"…_you calm the storms… and you give me rest… you hold me in your hands… you won't let me fall… you still my heart… and you take my breath away… would you take me in… take me deeper now… and how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you…would you tell me how could it be any better than this…cause you're all I want, you're all I need, you're everything… everything… you're all I want, you're all I need… you're everything… everything…." _he knew the song running riot inside his head was one of Laura's favorites, he'd heard her singing it more times than he could count, even if he was sleeping and she awake he sometimes heard her hushed voice using those lyrics to wrap him in a blanket of warmth like he'd never known before.

As he thought about her while singing those lyrics he started to feel something happening and though it frightened him a bit, it wasn't a scary thing, it was something he could feel building inside, like an electrical charge going off deep in his chest and it started an idea growing.

In the bedroom of his mind he saw them together, pressed chest to chest, grinning, enjoying each other to the exclusion of all else, he could feel her breath tickling his ear as she whispered, 'I love you…' into it then pressed her mouth to his, _Words do have power…I wonder…_ he mused opening his eyes and raising his head. His gaze meandered down her left arm and he saw a glimmer in the grasses. He looked at Sam who sat at her right keeping an eye on her fingers that rested in the water on the silver plate. Both of them were versed enough in the basics of elemental magiks to know that to sever the connection between her hand and that plate could leave her without a means of finding her way back home to her body.

Though it chilled him to do so, Dean laid her body back onto the ground and took the knife from her left hand. He scooted around so that he was between her right shoulder and his baby brother.

"Dean? What'd you think you're doing?" Sam asked as Dean pressed his foot against his hip and shoved him firmly out of the spot he was in.

"Move it Sammy…" he instructed.

"Dean I don't know how to get you back!" Sam protested as his brother lay down in the grass beside his girl.

"You'll figure it out Professor… bastardize something… build a better spirit realm beacon… I have faith in you Sam…" he said with more conviction than Sam could recall ever hearing out of his mouth.

"Dean please…" Sam whispered pleadingly, his heart pounding primally with fear for what his big brother was about to do.

Dean gripped the young man he'd helped to raise gently but firmly between the neck and shoulder, a touch of certainty, of faith as he looked into Sam's puppy dog eyes, "…she's all alone…" he pleaded as much as he would plead with anyone, his eyes were misty just a bit and his empathy shone brightly through them. He'd hate being alone, he always had and if he could save someone he cared about from that same desolation he would.

Sam pressed his lips together and reciprocated Dean's gentle grip, "… you just make damned sure you don't wind up leaving _me_ alone…" he admonished.

Dean cracked a smile, "Not a chance… bitch…"

"Jerk…" Sam shook his head smiling and moved out of the way. He winced a fraction as Dean sliced the tip of one of his fingers and squeezed a few drops into the already pink water then entwined his fingers with Laura's and lay back in the grass, his mouth whispering the lyrics to her favorite song in the hopes that through them a connection could be forged and a pinpoint opened for him to slip between worlds. _It's all about intent… intent is the key… desire is the fuel…I intend to find your crazy ass woman and bring you home… and I intend for you to live… there's no way in hell I'm gonna let you go that easily…_

"_Oh God…"_ he groaned inside as his head dropped to the side and his spirit rose to its feet, the clamshell looking hills of the stronghold before him. He looked around on the ground expecting to see his own body beside Laura, and Sam waiting, watching, preparing but as a warm wind rolled through the plain urging him toward the hills he realized he was alone.

"I'm coming Laura… just don't die…" he shook his head and started toward the hills at a maintainable run.

--

Engulfed in silence, still on her knees, her arms once more pinned to her sides perhaps by the will of the Goddess of Vengeance herself, and her eyes unable to be closed or averted, Laura bore witness to the successive bouts of corruption her baby brother was forced at first to endure. Her heart beat slowed wrapped in layers of despair as she watched Morgan's spirit slowly warp and twist and darken under the influence of the cruel Goddess. She watched him fall to her, giving himself in the end, with a dark ardor that was a perversion of the bright and shining love she had for Dean.

She watched the passage of time as the Goddess's abdomen swelled with progeny while Morgan was cast again back into the world of the living while she remained behind the veil to bear their offspring, again and again and again through the ages.

_Okay… so they had children… is it possible that she could've actually loved Morgan? For as much as she might be able to love at all? Oh man… if that's the case I'm screwed oh so very deeply…I mean… how would I feel if someone took Dean away from me? I mean if he chose someone else in the end that would be another matter but so far he seems pretty content…and he still enjoys the time we get to spend together… he's given me so much I could never ask for more… but if someone took him from me… oh yeah, I'd be pissed, _she sighed and watched an image of shadow take shape near the turn of the dovetail entrance and approach the Goddess. Laura's head tilted to the side as she watched the maroon haired female actually retreat from this encroaching shadow, she gave a quick shake of the head and crossed her hands over her swollen abdomen. The shadow figure took a step forward.

Laura heard herself gasp as the Vengeance Goddess flew across the cave and remained pinned halfway up the stony wall writhing in agony as a jagged slice tore through her leather armor and her abdomen. Laura grimaced as the shadow stepped forward, its hand outstretched before it plunged into the tear in the Goddess's body and seemed to revel in the agony it caused as its claws tore into her inner flesh.

_Oh no… oh man… what the hell? Why?_ she wondered as the shadow stepped back and turned its blood encrusted hand palm up, cradling a dervish of living dark dust hovering just above the 'flesh'. It turned for the exit and as it did Laura saw those eyes, _Big Bad? Here? What the hell?_ Her gaze turned back to the Goddess who slid down the wall, crumpled in a bloody heap just before flames erupted around and over her. Her screams may have been silent to Laura, but the melange of emotions behind them was not lost on the emissary, who for the moment actually felt sorry for the deity.

--

With the sound of screams and gunfire behind him Dean wheeled around, pulling his gun from his jacket pocket and holding steady as ghosts of the massacre at Wounded Knee passed at too great a distance for him to have any effect, both in geography and in time. He watched soldiers mow down men women and children mercilessly, saw infants fly from the arms of their mothers as they went down with bullets in their backs then grew sickened as the soldiers trampled anything in their path, including those helpless infants.

He had no words vile enough in his vocabulary for what he was witnessing, but he was aware enough of the 'reality' of his situation to know he could do nothing to alter the past. His quest lay in the present and future. Forcefully shutting the screams out of his ears he turned and started to lope once more toward the stronghold and the spirit of the woman who held his heart.

--

Laura watched Big Bad come twice more to steal her brother and Morrigan's offspring and she came to understand that she'd watched enough of their perversion to realize Morgan had already begun to pass on the abilities he was exhibiting with each incarnation.

Laura shook her head and felt lightning sear through her, _I wonder if I could influence her?_ then she thought about the two men she'd tried to influence who'd gone uber-psycho, _I doubt it… she was able to push them right through my attempts…_ her heart skipped a beat and warmth suffused her as she heard in the back of her mind, almost with a subconscious gleam a gentle alto voice singing her the lyrics to one of her favorite songs. _Oh God… is he calling me back?..._ her blood seemed to turn cold, _or is he here?_ she thought and dared to glance at Cernunnos who seemed to have roused just as the song started in her head. He smiled gently and relief seemed to wash over him. _What did you do!_ she demanded at him while struggling against her invisible bonds, she had to know, she had to find out if he was calling to her from his world or if he'd found a way to enter this one. _If Joe showed him how to move through the veil I'll kill him! _she thought angrily.

"The old shaman is dead … and in very short order I will have the whole of my revenge once your light arrives…" Morrigan hissed into her ear from behind and chuckled just a bit.

Laura drew a sharp breath as pain exploded deep in her head and wet heat rolled its way out through the ear nearest the Goddess's mouth.

"He's not yours Morrigan, he's been chosen by another destiny and you know it… you interfere with that and the cruelties you've endured at the claws of 'old boy' will be a gentle caress in comparison…" Cernunnos called from his rock, this revelation drawing a snarl of fury from his lover who motioned one of her owls to return to its feasting.

Morrigan crossed to where her lover lay restrained and lounged beside him on his boulder, her finger lazily caressing his chest, the nail poking into the holes her birds had made, turning and scraping the tender flesh beneath even as the owl continued to feast on his never ending supply of entrails.

"Doesn't mean I can't have some fun with him does it lover?" she cooed while shooing the beak of the bird out of the nearest abdominal hole. She curled her finger into the opening and lifted out a tattered segment of intestine gloating as he groaned in agony, her eyes moving between Laura's disgusted expression and the pained countenance of her lover.

"Oh for God's sake you sick frakkin' bitch! Leave him the hell alone! What's the matter with you?" she hollered as a strip of tissue broke free in the Goddess's hand. Morrigan tilted her head back and opened her mouth dropping the tidbit and relishing its texture and taste as Laura turned an interesting shade of green. "Now that's just gross…" she muttered shaking her head. _You think you're gonna have YOUR kind of fun with MY man you psycho? I don't think so…_Laura pledged inside and drew all of her energies into herself, visualizing in her mind's eye the path she'd arrived on, it stood out just a little brighter than the rest of this realm. She could see as if she were flying, a ribbon of brightness that led back to the area near Porcupine Butte where she knew her body lay. On this path she could see her beloved Dean running at a fast steady clip, following his instincts right into madness if she couldn't do something about it.

"_You must go back…"_ she thought at him and knew he heard her. His stride faltered and he shook his head before continuing on. _"Stop now… turn back… there is nothing you can do here…"_ she urged.

This time he stopped in his tracks, his breathing barely rough, "No! I'm not leaving you here alone…" he cried to the skies.

"_Dean…you can help me by going back to your own world!" _she tried again.

"Stop trying to protect me! It's not your job!" he demanded and shook his head before starting to run again.

"_Yes it is…I protect what I love… Dean… I'm sorry…" _she seemed to sigh in his head.

The eldest Winchester son drew to a halt, his heart beating hard but not for the exertion of running, there was something in her voice, something that made his hackles stand on end as shivers pulsed up his spine and made goosebumps stand up on his arms, then it hit him.

"Laura! What are you doing!... whatever it is you're going to do don't you dare!" he ordered furiously feeling his eyes begin to glass with tears while dread filled his belly. He remembered that time in Lawrence, his mother speaking those words, in almost exactly that way to his baby brother before she used what was left of her energy to destroy the malevolence that had infected their old house and put Jenny and her kids in jeopardy.

"Laura…" he groaned and poured on the speed, racing with everything he had toward the stronghold before she did something stupid.

He could see the first rocky fingernails of the hills reaching toward him, his heart beat hard, a champion thoroughbred could not have compared in that instant. _Yes! No way you lose this one Laura… I won't let you!_ he vowed and cried, "No!" as something hit him between the shoulder blades and he crashed hard on his chest onto the ground. Something had him in its grip and was hauling him back the way he'd come, speeding him back through all he'd just traversed, keeping him away from the hills, keeping him from reaching his goal and saving his woman. Incensed, he began to fight.

--

tbc

let me know what you're thinking please…

Please…

pleading now

sifi


	15. Chapter 15

Wounds – chpt 15 – sn. fic.

by: sifi.

--

Sam leaned over and reached into the bag he'd stuffed some of their most powerful accoutrements into. He'd been reluctant to leave Dean and Laura at all but if he was going to step away from them he was better off doing it sooner after Dean had gone into the veiled realm rather than later. Besides even with the limited files he had on the computer he wasn't sure exactly what he could or should do.

He startled and gasped when Laura's body sat up and her hand, entwined with Dean's lifted from the silver plate and her lips parted with a soft, "…orry…" before she fell back and Dean's body trembled for a brief moment before he bolted up, his eyes wide and a furious plea of "Don't do this…!" erupted from his mouth.

"Laura!...Dean!" Sam barked startled to his knees.

"No! God Damnit! Don't you do this…don't you DO this!" Dean cursed furiously and rose to his knees stiffly unclenching his fingers from hers.

"What happened? Dean? What's going on?" Sam asked as his big brother felt the woman's neck then lowered his ear to her mouth and watched for any sign of rise or fall of her chest.

"CPR Sam… now!" he ordered tilting her head back as Sam assumed his position opposite his brother, his fingers finding her xyphoid process then counting two finger widths up so he knew where to place the heel of his hands. "Damn you woman don't you do this to me!" Dean ground urgently as Sam began chest compressions. At the count of fifteen his younger brother paused long enough for him to administer the two breaths before resuming again.

"I don't know how she did it… she threw me out Sam… how long was I gone?" he asked as Sam reached fifteen again and paused, allowing him to give two more breaths.

"Less than ten minutes…" Sam said quickly before resuming his compressions.

Dean looked at him incredulous, "Felt like at least an hour… maybe more…okay that could work in our favor…" he nodded stroking her hair off her forehead as he looked at her features, "Why Laura? Why wouldn't you let me help you?" he asked and watched a tear splatter onto her face. "Don't you dare leave me…" he ordered in a whisper as Sam paused yet again.

Again he breathed for her and somewhere inside a song of metal came to him. He hadn't literally heard that sound within himself since he'd realized that the flash of fluid silver and comforting 'iiiinnnngg', that accompanied it was nothing more or less than the fullness of his own potential.

For twenty-three long years that light had lain beneath miles of guilt, fear, doubt, worry, and insecurity, layers of emotional sediment that, like the bands of rock in the earth could tell a story with each division. Somehow a storm had been unleashed within him though, quite possibly beginning at the cabin with his near destruction, and those torrential emotional rains of the last several months since his recovery had started the arduous task of uncovering that precious fossil just enough so he was able to find it, pick off the corrosion and remind himself that he too could be so much more than the sum of his parts.

His eyes fell on the silver plate which was now mostly empty, tilted precariously in the grass.

"Dean…" Sam urged. He bent and breathed.

"Sam do you know what she uses to fire up the elemental magiks?" he asked.

Sam looked at him and seemed to lose count, but his older brother hadn't, "You can't be serious… you want to try again?... Dean I can't keep this up forever…"

"Wait," Dean instructed. Sam paused, he breathed, Sam started compressing again, "You don't have to… can you give me twenty minutes?"

Thinking about it Sam nodded, "Yeah… then what?"

"If I haven't got her by then… Call 911 and get Reservation Services out here," he ducked his head and breathed again.

Dean kept working with his brother for as long as he could, breathing for her using only one hand to keep her nose shut while he felt that odd electrical charge begin to build in his chest again. _Intent… desire… I create the reality…_ he acknowledged and felt his mind touch the machete he'd belted onto himself. _"Sancho!..." 'Here you're grace…' "My armor! My sword!" 'More misadventures?' "Adventures old friend…"_ he felt his lips turn up in a grin of certainty.

Once more he found himself standing alone on the plain, but instead of taking off at a run like his heart wanted to he remained in the location, adjusting his position as the ghosts of this place returned to scream the injustice of the past yet again. Neither he nor Sam had missed the small hole that had stained Laura's side red and after his last visit, Dean had a fair idea of what had done it.

"Payback's a bitch…" he snarled drawing his gun from his pocket, _They'll work…_ he nodded to himself as those thundering hoof beats rattled the ground beneath his feet and the original inhabitants of this land screamed past him. The first Union soldier crested the rise and Dean fired his consecrated iron round into the ghost's chest. It seemed slow motion as the rider fell from his mount, a look of disbelieving curiosity on his face. Dean reached out, the fingers of his left hand sliding easily under the side strap of the bridle and he began to run with the animal until he could bring it to a controlled halt. He ducked under its head and stroked its steamy silken neck, _Hope I don't fall off…it's been so damned long!_ he thought with a chuckle and mounted the horse, gripping its reins in his right hand he tapped its flanks and squeezed with his knees as the responsive creature raced, reaching with all its might to bring this strange weighty rider to its destination. _This is more like it…_ he thought knowing he'd just bought several minutes to find her and reclaim her.

--

Laura gasped, choking under the vice-like grip of the Goddess of Vengeance, "You will regret that…"

"Getting that…" she wheezed as technicolor polka dots exploded in her eyes and brain, "Bring it bitch…he wasn't yours to begin with…" she expelled the last of her air and felt dark fluffy feathers drawing together over her vision.

Air rushed back into her lungs through her burning raw throat as Morrigan tossed her casually across the cave and into a far wall. Rolling onto her hands and knees she looked at her patron, his eyes were expressive, this was never supposed to happen, she'd given her oath to be his emissary, to fight on the side of light and she'd held true. He on the other hand hadn't been doing quite so well as her patron and the one moment he'd opened the veil enough for the man who loved her, and bore his own protection, to enter the realm and help her, she'd mustered her will and cast him back to his own proper place.

Cernunnos could see the focus of her will had taken a huge toll. Not only had the light of her path been severed but she'd tried with whatever was left to make certain he, the young Winchester, could not access the energies around him to try and return.

--

Outside of the cave in the grotto proper, the life of the dark forest had long ago stirred, trees leaned over the satiny black pool, creatures of all manner from myth and legend, perhaps once pure and light, but now through Morrigan's influence and bitterness, twisted mockeries of their true natures, came forth to watch the show unfold as the pool mirrored the events within the Goddess's sanctuary. Riotous cheers exploded in the air whenever a blow was struck to the presumptuous mortal. When she bled, laughter sounded, when tears fell, cheering roared and when she refused to bend, to buckle or to plead for mercy the audience grew quiet, awed by the sheer audacity of the species that walked so blindly in the outer realm.

At the edge of the pool nearest the crag that led to the road back, the tree with orange eyes and the twisted darkened trunk, sensed a change, it did not straighten as it wanted to, it did not take its eyes off the events being observed through the pool, but it spread its branches, catching the small gust of warmth that came from the outside in its darkened leaves, shielding the scent from the others here. Inside the bole of the tree, its eyes slid through the spectrum from orange to green for just a moment, and though no expression could be had, the leaves seemed to fill just a bit.

--

At the first crumbs of the hills Dean dismounted and dropped the reins, his senses wide open, willing to be drawn where he must to find and bring her back. He heard a series of lines from one of his favorite movies roll forward and grinned, _"What's the challenge then?" 'Rescue the damsel in distress… kill the bad guy… save the world…'_ was the correct response to which he added, _Well at least my little corner of it..._ he stopped for a moment, still smiling though a little more softly now as he admitted a truth to himself, _I can't imagine what my world would be like if I didn't know she was safe somewhere in it._

He shook his head knowing there was going to be one hell of a fight between them when all this was over, _If she thinks for one second I'm gonna let this slide… oh man has she got another think coming… Lady… you don't kick Dean Winchester out of ANY world, any time! _and he moved forward, drawn by what, he could not have said.

--

"Morrigan let the human go… has all this not been enough? Even for your tainted heart?" Cernunnos pleaded weakly from his boulder and drew the full attention of the Vengeance Goddess.

"You would ask me to turn my back on what it's my right to take?" she demanded and stood towering above him. Her finger pointed behind her, to the nook where the wall met the floor and Laura lay panting on her side, bloodied and bruised but somehow, fight still visible in her eyes. _What I need is to get close to him… maybe if I can pass the knife along to him he can free himself and then I can rest…or at least let myself go numb…numb…cold, heh…revenge is a dish best served cold… cold, huh…maybe…_ her eyes filled with light and flicked to Cernunnos who glanced at her, the corner of his mouth barely twitching in the dim light while she heard him seem to sigh within her mind, _"...you understand…" _and so she did but she couldn't help being just a little pissed either. _And you couldn't have told me this why? You couldn't have saved us both all this torment! Freakin' Deities! God you guys are infuriating!_ she railed at him and received only the most enigmatic of smiles in return. _Oh sure so we have to figure this crap out for ourselves… part of that whole 'freedom of choice thing!' Y'know…If you hadn't already been tortured enough, I'd bitch smack you!_ she thought toward him and saw his smile widen. At least he still had his sense of humor.

The weapons she used when fighting the dark forces that walked the earth held special properties, perhaps imbued by the very magiks that surrounded her patron and helped her to be a better emissary, but whatever the reason or cause, if Cernunnos represented fertility and rebirth, and his Goddess lover represented the other end of the spectrum, vengeance and destruction, then she'd been right in a way that her blade could be her salvation here, she'd just aimed for the wrong spot. _But it's not going to kill her… and it's probably just going to piss her off and she's going to keep coming after me… well once he's free he can do something to stop her… I hope…let's see if we can get her attention…. _"Hey Morrigan… y'know… I really want to apologize to you…" Laura said pushing herself first onto all fours, then onto her knees and finally, clawing at the wall to bring herself to her feet.

She rolled her head on her neck and checked her bruised and pained parts then ran a hand down her face and pushed off the wall, lurching with a limp toward the Goddess who stood watching her, her face impassive but those eyes betraying the curiosity in its mind.

--

tbc

Sorry so sadistically short… but I had to start 16 somewhere and I needed to finish 15 before I could do that… y'know?

but I need to know where y'all are at right now…

What cha thinkin?

sifi


	16. Chapter 16

Wounds – chpt 16 – SN. fic.

by: sifi

--

Sam looked at his watch, _Seven minutes… thirteen to go… come on Dean…you can do this…I know you can do this…_ he thought and pressed his fingers to her throat where he felt the faintest throb from deep inside. His arms and hands were shaking fiercely from the precision of the exertion required for a total of twelve minutes of CPR, five before Dean returned to the veiled realm and those seven since. _Oh God…am I really feeling that?_ he asked himself excitedly and tilted his head leaning down to put his ear over her mouth and see if she was breathing. He felt a small puff of air and wouldn't have known if it was from her or the wind itself until he saw her chest rise just a fraction.

"Laura! Come on Laura… you can do this… come on back to us…" he urged, his voice gentle and strong and filled with relief as his fingers settled on her neck feeling her pulse grow stronger beneath their tips. "I knew you could do it Dean…" he sighed and ran a hand over his brother's head while he ran his other through his hair and wiped the sweat off his face before returning his fingers to her throat. He nodded watching the rise and fall of her chest deepen and wondered how long it would be until they finally returned. _Should be soon…_ he nodded and decided to get to work on twisting his chosen herbs into smudge sticks he could use to help them find their way back if they somehow became lost.

--

Dean breathed deep the change in the air as soon as he passed into the grotto and his eyes grew wide as what he thought he was seeing was confirmed. There was a black tarry looking pool surrounded by all manner of reeds and rocks and creatures he'd mostly seen only in books.

"If I hadn't seen what I've seen in my life… yeah this would be pretty frelled up right here…mmm hmm," he sighed nodding to himself as the very trees straightened from where they had appeared to be leaning over the pond and seemed to move, yes literally move backwards while the creatures and beings faded into the shadows. He leaned a bit and tried to peer into the dark twisted forest and felt himself shudder, _Probably chock full of those freaky flying monkeys… eeesh…_ and he could've sworn he saw some eyes peering back at him. His hand fell to the hilt of his machete as he walked cautiously toward the pond wondering what they'd been looking at.

From his angle of approach there wasn't much he could see so he moved a little to the left, toward a tree with orange eyes that he failed to notice. He peered into the black waters and spocked an eyebrow as he saw what these…entities had been watching. _Veiled Realm reality t.v. huh?_ he thought pressing his lips tight together when he saw the Goddess's sanctuary and took in everything Laura had tried to shield him from. He saw her patron being disemboweled by owls, he saw the maroon haired Vengeance Goddess though he had no idea who she was, and he saw Laura, battered, bloodied and bruised roll onto all fours then push herself slowly to her feet and lurch toward the maroon haired deity.

"Where is this?" he asked firmly, gazing hard and unforgiving into the shadows nearby that seemed to cower and retreat that much further. "How do I get there?" he asked next and looked again, entranced as Laura approached the Goddess, her hands out in supplication, her expression pleading. He watched the female entity grab her by the throat and lift her off the floor and he grinned when he saw her legs clamp around the Goddess's waist, and her left hand come around with a flash of light to plunge one of her throwing knives into its chest. She drew back and palm struck the back end of the knife, thrusting it all the way into the deity's body, "Oooh that's gotta hurt…", before he watched her sail through the air and heard the rock wall next to the crag he'd entered through, vibrate. "Ha!" he huffed and lurched to the area feeling the rock wall until he found the dovetail split then wound his way around it.

"Wow this is weird…" he muttered reaching down and grabbing Laura by the back of the shirt and lifting her to her feet.

"Dean? How'd you get back?" she asked disbelieving.

"Hey honey… rough day at the office?" he grinned keeping his eyes on the wailing deity who was trying to dig Laura's blade out of her chest while he grabbed her by the back of the head and captured her lips possessively, "We're gonna need to have a little chat when this is all over…" he nodded.

"Oh boy…" she grimaced, then smiled returning the kiss, "Do me a favor? Get him loose?" she asked motioning toward her patron, "Oh yeah, Dean, Cernunnos…"

"We've met… ish," Dean nodded moving toward the mauled deity and inspecting how he was chained.

The horned God nodded and winced out a smile, "Hello human."

"Hi," Dean nodded.

"Really?" Laura asked moving toward Morrigan. She grabbed her by the leather armor and drove her out of the sanctuary and into the grotto, the properties of the metal serving to keep her just weak enough for Laura to be a match.

The Goddess tried for Laura's eyes but her talons were blocked, gripped by the shorter woman's strong hands and held captive as Laura yanked down and bucked up at the same time slamming the top of her head into Morrigan's nose.

"That actually hurt…" the Goddess said blandly and wrenched her hands free of Laura's grip. One of them went immediately to the hole in her chest, once more attempting to dig the blade out of her heart, while the other held Laura literally at arms' length, by the throat.

"Good, then I did it right…" she choked trying to pry those vise like fingers loose while she raised her legs and monkeyed them around the deity's arm so she was hanging from the limb.

"So… your light has returned…" Morrigan's voice strained through her exertions, anguished that she still couldn't get hold of the knife and the extra toll Laura's shenanigans were having on her strength.

"Yeah… he's like that…" Laura nodded and unfurled her left leg from around the arm that was trying to fling her off, to no avail, and kicked the deity in the face.

Dean and Cernunnos entered the grotto just as Laura kicked a second time, this strike landing atop the Vengeance Goddess's fingers that were still trying to get a grip on the butt of the knife. Only now, with the impetus of the kick the blade sank deeper into her heart and further from her reach.

"I'll drink your remorse as my kiss drives him to his destruction! Consequences be damned!" the frustrated Goddess cursed.

"Ooh careful there Morrigan… you know I tend to be very possessive… maybe even a little jealous at times…ask Big Bad about how I killed one of his kids huh…" Laura taunted thoroughly unaware that she was being watched,

Off to the side the two masculine figures stood watching the fight standing side by side, the deity a head shorter at the base of his antlers, than the human who grinned and propped his arm onto Cernunnos' shoulder. They met eyes and Dean straightened up, removed his elbow and even 'dusted off' the shoulder as he cleared his throat awkwardly. He pointed at Laura, "That's my girl," he told him proudly.

Cernunnos nodded and smiled, "I know."

Their attention returned to the two females as Laura continued explaining to Morrigan, "…all he did was _look_ at my boy…and you think I'm gonna let you _kiss_ him?" she asked and kicked again just before the deity finally managed to fling her to the ground.

Cernunnos looked at Dean who drew the shape of a spike in the air and pantomimed it going into his throat, nodding happily with a spocked eyebrow as the deity winced, then nodded approvingly.

Overhead the owls soared in and swooped toward Laura as Dean shouted her name and made to move toward her. Cernunnos grabbed his arm and looked at the birds who promptly fell out of the sky.

"Let's keep it between the girls shall we?" he instructed.

"Did you kill them?" Dean asked.

The deity shook his head, "Nah, that would really make her angry… they're just frozen."

"So what's this whole thing about anyway?" Dean asked.

Cernunnos sighed as the fight continued with neither female giving nor gaining ground, "There's a war coming… and we've already lost some of our future soldiers to the enemy…she's upset about it," he divulged and discouraged any further questions by focusing on these two women who, despite the vast disparity of their methods, were really fighting for the same side.

Laura rose unsteadily to her feet and swung a mile wide arc with her left before stepping in for a turning side kick. Morrigan grasped her leg and stepped in, her taloned fingers solidly clenched into a peak that she drove into Laura's abdomen with ruthless fury and lifted her off the ground from the inside.

"Laura!" Dean cried in horror.

"Morrigan!" Cernunnos echoed but in fury.

Both men raced forward.

--

Sam startled as Laura's body spasmed and a floe of blood ran over the corner of her mouth.

"No…" he gasped touching her neck and surprised to find the pulse still there and although it was still strong, it was sporadic and racing as was her breathing once more.

To his frustration, beside her Dean also gasped sharply but showed no signs of returning just yet.

Sam reached over and felt his brothers' neck, relief sparkled through him as he felt the pulse strong and sure if a little fast, as if he were under some stress, which judging by the blood running out of Laura's mouth he probably was.

"Come on Dean… fix this… bring her back…" he checked his watch. Six minutes had passed since Laura's heart started to beat on its own, and she began to breathe for herself again. Thirteen minutes down all together.

--

Dean raced to where Morrigan stood with Laura impailed on her arm, dangling above the ground, he was heedless of anything until Cernunnos grasped his arm and stopped him in his tracks with more strength than he would've guessed the smaller 'man' had.

"Morrigan…" he said sternly and received a withering look from the Goddess.

Gasping for air as well as in an incredible amount of pain Laura met Morrigan's eyes and nodded, "Alright, alright, I mean it. I'm sorry I hurt you…"

"Are you finished?" he asked.

Morrigan nodded as her birds began to move and fluttered to perch on her shoulders once more.

She lowered the arm Laura was dangling from until her feet touched the ground. Dean's arms came around her, ready to catch her but to his surprise as the Vengeance Goddess removed her piercing hand from the abdomen, the gaping wound knitted itself steadily closed, just as her throat had done when Sam had forced the dagger into it then that Sidhe warrior had pulled it out.

"How can you favor them so?" Morrigan asked Cernunnos as Laura stumbled backwards into Dean's chest and drew a full and painless breath.

Cernunnos winked at the two mortals and turned his lover toward the forest, "They have fire my love…"

"They're arrogant…" she corrected.

"Mmm," he murmured noncommittally, "Still most of them are allies."

"Optimistic fool," she shook her head.

"And you wouldn't have me any other way…" Cernunnos practically cooed as their forms were swallowed by the shadows in the forest.

"Uh… what just happened?" Dean asked as around them the grotto faded from existence to be replaced by the true interior of this little hollow in the stronghold.

Laura turned and looked at him wearing exactly the same expression he felt on his own face, and shook her head, "I really… don't… know…"

He shook his head and tilted her chin so she was looking up into his face, "Are you okay? Did she heal you?... is this one of those if you die in this realm you die for real things?" he asked.

"I don't know…" she admitted and lifted her shirt to see if there was a hole in her belly. There wasn't.

"Mmmm," Dean smiled opening his hand and pressing his palm to her flesh as he noticed that the bullet hole in her side was also closed up and scarred with fresh pink tissue. He slid his hand around to the small of her back, keeping his skin to hers while his other arm wrapped her close and firmly to him and his lips sought hers hungrily.

Time took a breath for them as she slid her hands up under his shirt, her palm holding lightly over his sternum, feeing the air between his skin and hers beat in time with his heart.

"Oh God Dean… I missed you… God I missed you…" she cried sliding his jacket over his shoulders and letting it drop onto the ground, followed quickly by his t-shirt first then hers.

His lips and hands roamed her freely, burning with passion as he pulled her body into his fearing he would lose all sense if he couldn't feel her against him that instant. His lips traveled a meandering line from the swell of her breast up to her neck and below her ear as her teeth nipped his lobe, "I was scared… you scared me Laura…don't ever do it again…" he chastised as she sought out his center and set him free.

"God I love you…" she tickled his ear again as he filled her with everything he had.

From the darkness of the dovetail turn Morrigan and Cernunnos retreated into the soft glow of her sanctuary grinning and holding hands.

"They honor you my love…" she said softly and stroked his cheek.

"We may win this war yet…" he smiled.

--

Sam sat on the bench outside the cabin but it really wasn't helping. He wondered if Dean had felt this awkward whenever he and dad fought and figured he probably had. They'd been yelling at each other for nearly fifteen minutes solid. The same arguments round and round and round like a broken record and he knew there was only one way this could end. He turned his face up to the sky as a few wayward raindrops foretold of a much heavier rain to follow. The sky was a background of slate so deep it made the green of the trees seem to almost glow with ethereal light.

_Either they'd better finish this damned argument or I better get my ass up to the main house for some coffee and a couple donuts… damit! Now I'm starting to EAT like Dean? That's just not right…_ he thought and cocked his head to the side.

"…I can't make a promise like that and you know it! Neither of us knows whether we're even gonna be alive tomorrow Dean!"

"Well you can try can't you? I mean this... you can't keep… I mean I know you have to but you have to try Laura! It's not fair… like it or not we're… well we're family y'know? You can't just keep going off all alone and not taking…help!" Dean argued stiltedly.

_Oh For The Love of God Dean! You stubborn, pig headed…_Sam stopped and remembered how Dean kept Laura separate from Cassie and Mercy in his mind. He'd wondered what it meant, and as he felt himself wanting to burst through the cabin door, grab Dean by the collar and smack him until he finally admitted to himself what he felt, he wondered why he wasn't letting himself acknowledge it. _Could he be THAT afraid? Come on…it's Dean he's not afraid of any… yes he is…he chokes it down, always has so he could do whatever's needed… losing mom almost killed Dad, he admitted that. Losing Jess… man I don't think I'd survive that again…but he hasn't lost… well he lost mom but, he hasn't lost a woman of his own…yet…not to Big Bad anyway, and by God I hope he never does…but she's a hunter too! She's better equipped than mom, Jess, Cassie or even Sarah… Mercy… well she's a hunter in her own right but I think Bobby'd break out the shotgun for Dean on that one, but he doesn't love her like THAT… point is she stands a better chance of survival than ANY of the other women…That's it! _he thought pushing off the bench and heading toward the cabin.

The sound of something shattering came to his ear in the stillness of the pre-storm afternoon and he broke into a jog, _Criminey now they're throwing things?_ he thought and stopped short just a few feet from the door as he heard the sound of Dean's soft chuckles and Laura's contagious giggles. He dropped his head grinning as he heard the bedsprings squeal in protest as apparently they both fell onto it and started laughing.

"Seriously… promise me you'll try and not be so damned reckless or… or stubborn, or pig headed…" Dean urged while laying atop her.

_Heh! Pot calling Kettle much?_ Sam thought with a smile.

Through a break in the sheers Sam could see Dean had his shirt off and Laura was still in her tank top beneath him, _Heh! not for long if I know anything at all about my big brother…_ he thought wondering if he should go in and get his jacket before things got too… private.

"I promise I'll try… that's the best I can do…" she smiled from beneath him, favored him with a playful kiss then flipped them so Dean was under her.

He nodded and sat up clutching her to him, wrapping his arms protectively around her and pressed his mouth to her ear.

Even from his vantage Sam could see the smile that lit up her face as she drew back, cradled his head in her hands and nodded, her voice soft and certain as she said, "I know," before she kissed him long and lovingly.

Sam smiled and nodded. His wallet was in his pocket and he wasn't about to go take a nature hike or anything. He turned and made his way to the main house leaving Dean and his woman to settle their argument in the only way it seemed they knew how.

--

End.

Please let me know what you're thinking.

And thanks for joining me on this journey.

sifi.


End file.
